Weinstein Company’s "The Current War"

[LoganGambit87]

The Current War

“X-Men” star Nicholas Hoult is in talks to join Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon in the Weinstein Company’s drama “The Current War,” an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap exclusively.

He would play inventor Nikola Tesla, while Cumberbatch will play Thomas Edison and Shannon will play George Westinghouse. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”) will direct, and recently met with Hoult in London to discuss the project, a second person familiar with the project told TheWrap.

Weinstein executives have been a fan of Hoult’s since Tom Ford‘s directing debut, “A Single Man,” and are looking for other projects to feature him, the insider added.Michael Mitnick wrote the script, which was voted to the 2011 Black List of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays. Set in the late 1880s, the story follows the battle between Edison and Westinghouse to supply electricity, with Edison backing direct current and Westinghouse pushing alternating current.

Tesla came to the United States in 1884 and briefly worked with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those to his alternating-current machinery, to George Westinghouse. His 1891 invention, the “Tesla coil,” is still used in radio technology.

The Weinstein Company is eyeing an early December shoot for the project.

http://www.thewrap.com/x-men-star-n...ay-nikola-tesla-in-the-current-war-exclusive/

 

[DarkKnight88]

It’s back!

The film, which originally debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2017 and was set to hit theaters in November of the same year, was acquired by 101 Studios for $3 million and thanks to executive producer Martin Scorcese, director Afonso Gomez-Rejon was able to retain final cut on the product versus previous rights holder Lantern Entertainment releasing the film overseas. The new cut runs 10 minutes shorter than the version shown at TIFF and features five new scenes.

“I had gotten to the point where I realized it was likely I would have to make peace with having a film out there with my name on it that wasn’t me,” Gomez-Rejon said in an interview with Deadline. “But we never gave up, not Timur Bekmambetov, Basil Iwanyk and not my WME reps Mike Simpson, Roger Green and Chris Donnelly at LBI. They waged a constant fight to get it back so I could give it the shape and tone I always wanted. There were times that this film left me shattered for so long that sometimes I couldn’t see the light.”

“It would have been easy to move on, but it would have been with this nagging feeling that if I hadn’t spent all my time addressing notes from multiple parties [before Toronto], I would have made close to the film I wanted to. And then I get the call from my reps,” Gomez-Rejon said. “I was getting the film back and had six to eight weeks and the chance to shoot one extra day. I was never more prepared for anything in my life. A lot of actors needed to be there on one Saturday in December and they all stepped up. We had this farmhouse and one room was Tesla’s office, another was Edison’s bedroom, and on and on.”

101 Studios Revives The Current War With US Release - ComingSoon.net

 

[Kane52630]

 

[JtheDreamer]

Might be time to consider changing the name of the production company.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Erasing Harvey Weinstein The Current War Cut & Rotten Tomatoes Score – Deadline