Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s upcoming period drama The Current War is coming together quickly. The film – about the rivalry between George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison – already has nice pedigree aligned with Oscar nominated actors Michael Shannon and Benedict Cumberbatch attached to lead. Now from Deadline, comes news that Katherine Waterston (Inherent Vice) is the latest to join the movie. The Weinstein Company will distribute.
The film charts Westinghouse and Edison and their attempts to come up with a sustainable electrical system to market in the United States, as well as the hopes to one-up each other in the process. Waterston has come aboard to portray Westinghouse’s wife Marguerite Erskine. Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road) is in talks to join the cast as Nikola Tesla as is Sienna Miller (American Sniper) for an unconfirmed role. Michael Mitnick penned the script. The movie is expected to start production late this year.
In an interesting turn, a competitive project is also in the works revolving around the same story. That film is called The Last Days of Night is set to star Eddie Redmayne (Waterston’s co-star in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as lawyer Paul Cravath (the man who defended Westinghouse after Edison won the patent in the end. Morten Tyldum is directing that film from a screenplay from Oscar winner Graham Moore, based on his book. Both Tyldum and Moore previously worked together on The Imitation Game, a film that earned Cumberbatch an Oscar nomination making this story all the more incestuous.
Waterston made a splash a few years back with her critical admired role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice. She followed that film up with last year’s Steve Jobs and soon appears in Fantastic Beasts. She will also be featured in Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming Logan Lucky as well as Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant.
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