EXCLUSIVE: Cold War star Tomasz Kot is set to play celebrated inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla in the feature biopic Nikola.

Based on a screenplay by Leap Year director and Girl With a Pearl Earring producer Anand Tucker, the story will focus on Tesla’s last big experiment, which was regarded as a failure at the time, but may in fact have been among his great triumphs. Tucker will also direct. The character piece will explore Tesla’s personal journey to achieve his scientific ambitions while risking financial security and battling his inner demons.

Ingenious Media is arranging financing and Daria Jovicic (The Railway Man) will produce under her Latitude Media banner. Peter Touche, Andrea Scarso and Ximo Paris will executive produce, with Tucker’s Seven Stories co-producing. Jovicic and Tucker previously collaborated on features The Railway Man, Incendiary and Girl With a Pearl Earring.

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UTA’s Independent Film group will handle North American sales on the English-language project, which is due to begin filming this fall. Oscar-nominated Cold War drew strong notices for Polish actor Kot, who has been subsequently cast in movies including the starry sci-fi thriller Warning and the BBC series World On Fire.

Serbian-American inventor Tesla was known for dozens of breakthroughs in the production and transmission of electric power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was also a forerunner of wireless communication and would demonstrate his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his New York lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures.

Tucker stated, “Nikola Tesla was one of the most influential and important minds at the dawn of 20th century, and in many ways created our modern world, with its electric cars, instant connectivity through the Internet, and global communication. He was also a deeply complex and extraordinary human being. Tomasz is an exquisite actor, and when I saw his extraordinary performance in Cold War there was no doubt in my mind as to who should play Tesla.”

Jovicic added, “We are beyond thrilled to have Tomasz on board. He is the perfect actor for the role and we are so excited to be working together to bring Anand’s terrific script to life.”

Tesla has inspired a number of screen productions over the years. Nicholas Hoult portrayed him in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s recent movie The Current War, while Ethan Hawke stars as the inventor in an upcoming movie from writer-director Michael Almereyda.

Kot and Tucker are represented by UTA. Kot is also represented by L Stars Talent Agency in Poland, and Tucker by Curtis Brown Group in the UK. Latitude Media is represented by Ted Cawrey and Blueprint Law.