Sparks fly as rival inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse come face-to-face in the trailer for new film The Current War, released yesterday (September 7).
(Okay, okay, we’ll try to reign in the electricity puns from now on.)
In this big screen dramatization, these two bright sparks (sorry), played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon respectively, race to develop and patent a sustainable electricity system.
The premise may sound a bit dry and technical for a Hollywood movie, but history buffs will know that the outcome of this particular conflict in the 1880s determined the future of the American electrical industry. Edison favored direct current (DC), while Westinghouse and several other companies preferred to push alternating current (AC).
Caught between the two was the maverick inventor Nikola Tesla, who was famously played in 2006’s The Prestige by the late, great David Bowie, and will be played by The X-Men‘s Nicholas Hoult in this movie.
Just watch the electricity crackle between the three of them:
Written by The Giver‘s Michael Mitnik, the film also stars Alien: Covenant‘s Katherine Waterston, new Spider-Man Tom Holland, Spooks‘ Matthew McFadyen and Sense8‘s Tuppence Middleton.
It opens in U.S. theaters on November 24.
Are you wired to see this one?
