Michael Shannon to join Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Current War”

PanARMENIAN.Net - Michael Shannon is in negotiations to play Thomas Westinghouse in the Weinstein Co.’s “The Current War”, Variety reports.

Benedict Cumberbatch is already on board to play Thomas Edison with “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon set to direct.

The movie takes place in the late 1880s and revolves around power titans Edison and Westinghouse’s battle over the supply of electricity. Edison championed the use of a direct current for electric power distribution over an alternating current, which was backed by several European companies and Westinghouse Electric.

The pic is one of two films centered on this rivalry with Black Bear Pictures developing “The Last Days of Night” starring Eddie Redmayne as the lawyer caught in the middle of the patent battle that ensued following Edison’s discovery of the electrical current.

TWC will finance and distribute the film.

Timur Bekmambetov, who was originally eyed to direct the movie, will produce alongside Film Rites’ Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch.

Shannon was most recently seen in Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals,” which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival along with “Midnight Special” and “Loving.” He is currently filming “The Shape of Water.”

He was also recently seen in “Poor Boy” and “Wolves.”