That’s it, it’s war! No, Jake Gyllenhaal and Benedict Cumberbatch aren’t looking to go into battle over who can deliver the funniest talk show anecdote or whose name causes the most trouble for spellchecking. They’re both in talks to play rival inventors in **The Current War{
Michael Mitnick’s script has been strolling the halls of development since Timur Bekmambetov plucked it from the pile as a potential directing gig. Since then, Ben Stiller has flirted with the job, but now The Weinstein Company has Me And Earl And The Dying Girl’s Alfonso Gomez-Rejon considering the idea, potentially lining it up for him to work on after Collateral Beauty, which is set to shoot in the coming months.
The Current War, set in the late 1880s, follows the real-life public clash between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse as to who was going to decide the future of the electricity industry. Edison favoured direct current, while Westinghouse and several other companies preferred to push alternating current. It was, to put it bluntly, an actual power struggle. And famously, Angus Young of AC/DC helped them settle their differences.*
Gyllenhaal is on screens now in Everest and will also be seen in Demolition, which is playing at various festivals and lands in the US on April 8 next year, but doesn’t have a UK release set yet. Cumberbatch has Black Mass out on November 27, and is about to start shooting Marvel’s Doctor Strange, which is out on October 28, 2016. Head here for a viewing guide to Cumberbatch's best turns to date.
*Not true.