Jake Gyllenhaal and Benedict Cumberbatch Getting Electric in THE CURRENT WAR

While The Current War may sound like a title about a film detailing our latest international conflict, it's actually about the battle over the transmission of electricity in the late 1800s. Based on a Black List script by Michael Mitnick (The Giver), the story centers on Thomas Edison, who wanted direct current (DC) to win out, and George Westinghouse, who introduced alternate current (AC) as a potential replacement.

THR reports that Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to play Edison and Benedict Cumberbatch is in talks to play Westinghouse in the movie for Me and Earl and The Dying Girl director Alfonso Gomez-Rajon and The Weinstein Company. This sounds like a great collaboration waiting to happen, so fingers crossed it all works out. I wonder how the film will treat Edison, because if you'll remember in The Prestige, he was basically viewed as an unseen villain opposed to inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie). Either way, this is a fascinating story that hasn't really been given its due on the big screen before.