The debate between alternating current and direct current in the distribution of electricity is the subject of a new biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon. The Current War, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), traces the professional rivalry between inventor Thomas Edison and engineer George Westinghouse in the late 1800s in the United States of America. Edison backed direct current while Westinghouse favoured alternating current, and both men go to war in the trailer. Nicholas Hoult stars as inventor Nikola Tesla, who, when asked what he does for a living, says, “I fix problems for idiots.” The movie will be premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 and will be released in the US on November 24.
Reading
-
1
How the Sassoons of Bombay became one of China’s wealthiest families
-
2
‘No Pausa’ walks with women on long road through menopause
-
3
A book of real-life accounts from the Indian Air Force honours those who took part in the 1962 war
-
4
Proposed Waqf Act amendments strike a discriminatory note for Muslim charitable organisations
-
5
How the Sri Lankan civil war made its way into a French film about an undercover cop
-
6
Family history: A writer investigates why her great-grandfather chose to sail to South Africa
-
7
How the 1958 Mundhra scam exposed the nexus between LIC, the bureaucracy and rogue businessmen
-
8
Booker Prize review: Desire, suspicion, and obsession comprise the emotional core of ‘The Safekeep’
-
9
November global nonfiction: Start a new month with these recent books, including Orhan Pamuk’s
-
10
Hounded around the world, the first ‘man-made man’ took refuge in India