Check out Benedict Cumberbatch as famous smarty-pants, Thomas Edison

January 23rd 2017, 9:27am

Benedict Cumberbatch seems like he has a personal goal of playing every famous smart guy in history in movies. He’s played Julian Assange in THE FIFTH ESTATE, and was nominated for an Oscar in the acclaimed THE IMITATION GAME. Now, he will be going even further back in time as Thomas Edison in THE CURRENT WAR, and you can see him in his fancy 19th century garb in the first image below!

Doesn’t he look dapper!

The movie from ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon will focus on the competitive relationship between Edison and George Westinghouse as they try to become the first to supply the world with a “sustainable electricity system.” Michael Shannon will play Westinghouse, and I officially have the attention of anyone on the fence about this movie.

The Weinstein Company will be releasing the movie, and Harvey Weinstein has made a statement about the movie saying:

Edison and Westinghouse’s rivalry is the ultimate tale of competition driving ingenuity. Theirs was a battle of intellect, a race of creativity and technological innovation that we see echoed in the self-made inventors dominating spaces like Silicon Valley. We’re thrilled to start filming and to share this historical rivalry with audiences everywhere.

The movie’s cast is rounded out by other Marvel stars Tom Holland and Nicholas Hoult, in addition to ALIEN: COVENANT star Katherine Waterston, proving this is a cast designed to get comic book nerds into historical biopics.

Cumberbatch is an undeniably gifted actor, delivering a bravo performance in IMITATION GAME, so he will most likely knock it out of the park. But the rest of that cast in dynamite too, especially Shannon. As for Rejon DYING GIRL was one of the most underrated movies of 2015, so I trust him completely. All-in-all this is shaping up to be a great biopic and I can see it getting a ton of awards attention. I mean, did you see how authentic Cumberbatch’s bow tie looks?

There’s no exact release date yet, but THE CURRENT WAR is set for this year.