The man who has been taking the film festival scene by storm in recent months, Jake Gyllenhaal may yet be adding another film to his impressive CV. The actor is reportedly in talks to join Benedict Cumberbatch in the Weinstein Company’s drama THE CURRENT WAR, which Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL) is in talks to direct.
Cumberbatch has been attached to the project for months to play Thomas Edison and according to The Hollywood Reporter, Gyllenhaal is now in discussions to play George Westinghouse.
The screenplay has been penned by Michael Mitnick, which was voted to the 2011 Black List of Hollywood’s best unproduced screenplays. The story is set in the late 1880s and tells the battle between Edison and Westinghouse to supply electricity, with Edison backing direct current and Westinghouse pushing alternating current.
Timur Bekmambetov, who was believed to be helming the movie, will now produce via Bazelevs along with Steve Zaillian and Garrett Basch of Film Rites.
It is not the first time that Gyllenhaal and Cumberbatch have worked with the Weinstein Company as they have created the movie SOUTHPAW and THE IMITATION GAME respectively.
Both of the actors are currently busy with projects, as Gyllenhaal is currently filming Tom Ford’s NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and Cumberbatch is on stage in the West End in HAMLET before starting work on upcoming Marvel movie DOCTOR STRANGE.
Gomez-Rejon also has other commitments before filming commences on THE CURRENT WAR, as he will first direct COLLATERAL BEAUTY starring Will Smith.
[…] actor is also rumoured to be eyeing scripts based on the Boston Marathon bombing, THE CURRENT WAR alongside Benedict Cumberbatch and he is currently working on Tom Ford’s latest feature […]
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