The Current War trailer: Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Edison; glimpse into age of inventions

What happens when a genius is roped in to portray another genius on screen? The result, evidently, is a piece of cinematic genius. That’s what happens in director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s upcoming film, The Current War.

The trailer of the film is a packet full of energy, power, action and gets as electrifying as it could, literally as well as metaphorically.

The Current War is set around the time (the 1870s) when the world had just started tasting fruits of the glorious Industrial Age. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of the legendary American inventor Thomas Edison who is credited to have introduced the mankind to what is known as “electricity”. His greatest invention, the light bulb, brought light to the then dark world, in the truest sense.

But there are always two sides to a coin. While he undoubtedly stands as a phenomenal visionary and inventor, his Direct Current (DC) electric networking was much poorer and inefficient in comparison to the Alternating Current (AC) system advocated by yet another renowned scientist and entrepreneur George Westinghouse.

The Current War throws light on this disagreement and brings forth “the dramatic story of the cutthroat race between electricity titans Edison and Westinghouse to determine whose electrical system would power the modern world,” as mentioned in the official synopsis of the film.

As per the trailer, Cumberbatch delivers the pitch-perfect performance he is known for. Accompanying him, in equally riveting portrayals, are Michael Shannon as Westinghouse and Nicolas Hoult as Nikola Tesla (who seems to play the dark horse in the film). Other actors in the cast include Tom Holland, Tuppence Middleton, Katherine Waterston and Matthew Macfadyen.

Regardless of the fact that the two brilliant inventors are famous, powerful and successful in their own rights, like every other ’normal’ human, they too are affected by the vices of pride, revenge, remorse and (possibly) greed. This makes for the most striking part of the trailer.

The Current War is written by Michael Mitnick and produced by the Weinstein Company.

While the film premiered on 9 September at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, the official global release is due on 24 November.