The Current War begins filming with Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Holland

The Weinstein Company has announced today that production on their upcoming drama The Current War is set to begin on December 18, 2016 in London and surrounding areas.

Set in the late 1880s, The Current War details the rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse and the race to create a marketable and sustainable electricity system. Edison championed the use of a direct current for electric power distribution over an alternating current, which was backed by Westinghouse Electric and a host of European companies.

“Edison and Westinghouse’s rivalry is the ultimate tale of competition driving ingenuity,” Harvey Weinstein said. “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 film’s cast features a veritable who’s who of superhero movies and genre cinema too including Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (Dr. Strange, The Imitation Game) leading the cast as as Thomas Edison alongside Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, Nocturnal Animals) as George Westinghouse.

Katherine Waterston (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the upcoming Alien: Covenant) also stars in the film along with Tom Holland (Captain America: Civil War, the upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming), Matthew Macfadyen (Ripper Street, Anna Karenina) and Tuppence Middleton (War & Peace, The Imitation Game). In addition, Nicholas Hoult (X-Men Apocalypse, Mad Max: Fury Road) will take on the role of Nikola Tesla for the feature.

Written by Michael Mitnick (The Giver), the film will be directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), with Basil Iwanyk (Wind River, Hotel Mumbai), Timur Bekmanbetov, and Harvey Weinstein producing, and Cumberbatch and Adam Ackland executive producing.

(Photo Credit: Ivan Nikolov/Lia Toby/WENN.com)