In this day and age a significant
enough amount of social indignation can be enough to ruin schedules and
timetables when it comes to business, like with the movie industry. Case in
point is “The Current War,” a historical film by Thunder Road Pictures about
the conflict between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse for the adoption of
direct and alternating current systems in electrical power. The snag was that
its distributor was The Weinstein Company, at a time when Harvey Weinstein was
in deep trouble for sexual abuse allegations. This caused the movie to be
pulled from a 2017 release.
After languishing in limbo
however, “The Current War” will finally see its time on cinemas under new
distributors according to Entertainment
Weekly. Directed two years ago by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon the movie stars
Benedict Cumberbatch as Edison, who espouses his direct current (DC) power
against the competing alternating current (AC) system being used by engineer
George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) and his major supporter Nikola Tesla
(Nicholas Hoult). This historically happened in the late 19th
Century from 1888 to 1890, with demonstrations from both camps trying to
promote their power generation at the expense of the other.
“The Current War” managed to
premiere first at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 2017,
with a planned general release the following November. Unfortunately the
scandal with Harvey Weinstein caused theaters to shun all completed productions
from The Weinstein Co. at the time. The movie was rescued by Lantern
Entertainment, but it would not be until this year that they were able to secure
distribution for the film. 101 Studios will handle the US premiere while
Lantern distributes “The Current War” internationally. Gomez-Rejon remarks that
the wait for a release under the new owner was painful, but is relived that his
latest work will get its chance for screening.
To celebrate the upcoming release
that was delayed so long, a new trailer for “The Current War” was also
released. It revisits the original preview’s beats on the growing competition
between Edison and Westinghouse, one that devolves into mudslinging to scare
potential electricity users from one power system and favor the other. Focus is
given to Edison’s claims that Westinghouse AC power is deadly, and that the
system was copied off DC. Tesla also figures in the eventual confrontation between
DC and AC power, the winner of which will be how future electricity is
generated.
Gomez-Rejon mentions that the
time between the original and new release dates enabled the production to add
new scenes into “The Current War.” Martin Scorsese served as executive producer
for the film, which will premiere on limited release October 4. General release
comes October 11.
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