It was the 19th century struggle for the supremacy of electricity, pitting Thomas Alva Edison against George Westinghouse.  Now it’s a new movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange, Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, The Hobbit), Michael Shannon (Midnight Special, Man of Steel), and Nicholas Hoult (X-Men series, Mad Max: Fury Road).  Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and written by Michael Mitnick, The Current War looks like the kind of historical piece that should drive fans of Cumberbatch’s BBC work right into theaters.

Cumberbatch will play Edison, Shannon will play Westinghouse, and Hoult will play Nikola Tesla.  Spider-man: Homecoming’s Tom Holland is Samuel Insull, one of the co-founders of Edison General Electric, and Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Alien: Covenant) is Westinghouse’s wife, Marguerite Erskine.

The film was originally scheduled for release on December 12, 2017, but then it was changed to November 24, and it’s been put on indefinite delay.  The hesitation purportedly wasn’t for reasons of the film’s content, the frequent cause of many delayed films being re-edited or re-tooled at the last minute.  This film hails from The Weinstein Company, and like many projects from that studio, distribution was disrupted because of owner Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment scandal.

Check out this trailer for The Current War:

This one is not getting much promotion or fanfare, so expect a short run in theaters.  The Current War is not expected to make its investment back without audience demand that could result from nominations at the Academy Awards (it is eligible for 2017 because of a quick limited release).  So it is not expected to arrive in theaters before March 2018.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com