For a while now, we’ve been discussing how Benedict Cumberbatch is booked solid for the next year or so. Even though he’s currently starring in Hamlet, the team for Marvel’s Doctor Strange is already in London, prepping the film. I’ve been assuming that Benedict will probably start filming Doctor Strange like the day after he completes his Hamlet run at the end of October. That Strange shoot will take months. After that, well into 2016, Bendy will filming Sherlock (hopefully). He’s signed on for various other projects too, and I have no idea if he’s going to follow through. By my estimation, he’ll probably be free to take on a new project… maybe early summer 2016? If that. But if Harvey Weinstein really wants to cast Benedict again, I suspect he will. Apparently, Weinstein is producing a film called The Current War about Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. Jake Gyllenhaal is in talks to play Westinghouse and everyone wants Bendy to play Edison. Huh.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Benedict Cumberbatch are in talks to star as George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison, respectively, in The Weinstein Co.’s The Current War. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is in discussions to helm the Edison-Westinghouse-feud film that was penned by playwright-screenwriter Michael Mitnick (The Giver), whose script made the Black List in 2011. The plan is for Gomez-Rejon to make Current War his next film after directing the Will Smith starrer Collateral Beauty, which will shoot in the fall. Also this fall, Gyllenhaal is shooting Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals.
Current War takes place in the late 1880s and revolves around power titans Edison and Westinghouse’s battle over the supply of electricity. Edison championed direct current (DC) for electric-power distribution over alternating current (AC), which was backed by several European companies and Westinghouse Electric. TWC will finance Current War and release it domestically.
Ah, it seems that they would be looking at filming this next summer at the earlier anyway. If that’s the case, God bless. Benedict probably would be free then (maybe) and eager to sign on for another Weinstein Oscar Campaign Experience. What would that be? It would be filmed in 2016, presumably released in 2017, so Bendy would be looking at a 2017-early 2018 awards season. Just enough time to get Sophie knocked up again for an Oscar campaign! Anyway, I don’t have any strong feelings for or against Benedict playing Edison, although I do think he should try to do some non-bio-pics every so often.
Meanwhile, here’s the trailer for the live-in-movie-theaters Hamlet experience:
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Bendy starring in another biopic playing another genius? Zzzzz.
As Peregrin Took in LOTR so deftly puts it, “If I yawn any more, I shall split at the ears.”
P.S. I kinda want Bendy and Harvey to unite in an unholy union of WTF Oscar campaigning for all eternity. The outright thirst while trying to act above it all would be something to behold.
So how many geniuses will he have played if he does Edison? I can’t count that high before I’ve had coffee.
*Yawwwn*
Eh, David Tennant got there first.
I know DT played Eddington, but Edison???
so true
Very thirsty for an Oscar isn’t he.
The Current War is actually a genuinely good script. He’d be a fool to pass it up, unless something unforeseen happens.
I’m sure I’ll be unpopular, but I don’t think he’ll campaign this time.
With HW on board he can’t refuse to campaign, simple as that. HW even sent a car to pick up KK who was tired because pregnant, so she could show up at one of his promotional dinner parties for TIG.
I remember reading on Time Out that BC told HW he didn’t have much time for promoting the film because he was swamped with work and we all know how that one ended.
It depends, hermia.
Sometimes, TWC produces films but hands off distribution to someone else, and that someone else runs the campaign. It depends on their slate and the best distribution plan for the film (and whether those rights were sold off, of course).
Additionally, Weinstein is more interested in lead than supporting; he only goes after supporting aggressively if he’s feeling lead is going to be very tough.
So if you’ve got two strong leads here, he will only run one as lead and the other supporting. As Gyllenhaal has been gunning for an Oscar and is the more well-known of the two, he’s whom should be run as lead.
I don’t see Gyllenhaal going after a prize with the same thirst as BC for TIG. He seems a much more laid back type to me. But I guess we shall see. 🙂
Lord another Oscar bait biopic. Boy is desperate for one.
Nope. He loves stuffy biopics doesn’t he? I’m a little nervous to see his doctor strange. His Kahn was bad, but he didn’t have a ton to work with. I’m also torn on his Hamlet. It looks corny in the trailer but that could just be the trailer.
He can be a stuffy actor – he’s talented but he’s becoming a bit of a one trick pony i.e. the tortured posh English gent – which he does well. His Kahn wasn’t that bad but he did come across as being rather constipated at times. He does better on screen when he’s not the lead and if the director/script if right. Some of his earlier stuff was really good (Starter for 10, Stuart a Life Backwards to name a few).
But I repeat he is talented.
he is talented but has become very predictable over the last few years-I liked him in Osaga County best of all last year
I liked his Khan. that was the first thing I saw him in, and I didn’t know who he was. I thought he was head and shoulders above everyone else there.
His Hamlet is good, but not stellar. Khan I don’t know, as I refuse to watch Star Trek.
I was hoping for something more diverse as his new role, but he’s gotta take what he’s offered I guess. He’s an actor and they are always scared to be jobless.
His Khan was ok. Some scenes he has great presence, and in others, he overacts. Stuffy is a good word for him for some roles. I feel like he could be a very good actor with range, but he plays it so safe with his choices, so hard to say.
He had diversity early in his career but he’s sacrificed that in his campaign to break into Hollywood for the big budget roles.
I could only watch a little of The Imitation Game as his hammy over acting was off putting. He only got the nominations cuz Harvey pushed the movie big time.
yea maybe that’s what it is. I never watched his work pre-Sherlock. I watched everything after and was disappointed.
You should watch the work he did ‘before’. You won’t be disappointed. I’ve watched his Van Gogh three times and it still gets me every single time.
i thought the STID script was godawful and his performance was one of the better things about it tbqh
the worst acting in the movie was quinto/pine in the death scene. i mean, they were laughably bad
Liked him as Khan (the whitewashing aside, as that’s not his fault imho) he hammed it up but I felt it worked, I even liked him in the small role in August Osage County, adored him in Starter for 10, he really needs to try more comedy, which if it’s clever could still win him awards and I truly believe he wants them but isn’t 100% comfortable with the campaigning hence the pissy attitude and general awkwardness, but he sold out big time for awards season and he knows it. He’d kill in something like Veep, or Thick of It (same writer).
Range? Why bother stretching oneself as an actor? Chuck Norris did just fine without range and Bendy will too!
I’ll be seeing this one for Jake.
I had a weird sexy dream about Cumberbunny last night, it was great….then we ate pizza in the back of a car and talked about the theatre.
I’m going to rewatch the first 2 series of Sherlock to try and get him out of my system lol
He just needs to stay away from Nikola Tesla, you know the guy who invented alternating current. Tesla is the only one interesting enough to make a biopic about.
No, please. Hollywood has already done enough to turn Tesla into a movie cliche.
What? How? He’s barely got any presence in popular culture beyond nerdy corners of the internet. The closest thing we’ve gotten to seeing Tesla in mainstream culture is David Bowie playing him in The Prestige (which was awesome, but was a small part).
I’d love to see a biopic of Tesla (with preferably an unknown in the lead).
Bowie was Nice as Tesla in The Prestige
I loved Bowie as Tesla… But then I love The Prestige
Yes he was – I remember thinking “couldn’t he at least hum while he’s working? Something?”
Agreed on both Bowie and The Prestige. Have to re-watch this one.
I think the only actor out there who could play Telsa well is Daniel Day-Lewis – besides the fact that Daniel would be a better Tesla than Tesla himself. Dan is almost the same height, he kind of looks like him. My only concern is that Dan would spend years researching and he’d build some of Tesla’s inventions in his backyard.
LOL, he would.
Nonsense.
Tesla needs to be played by an Eastern European actor.
DDL is too old.
I hope DDL reads your comment, takes up the challenge, makes the movie about Tesla as actor/producer and that it’s released the same year as BC’s Edison.
You know how that Oscar competition would end.
Tesla > Edison
> Tesla > Edison
As a human being, definitely. As a movie character, not necessarily, Movies need drama and tension to be interesting.
Movies based on real people are constantly criticized for modifications to the story and stuff made up outright to make it more interesting, to add more suspense.
I was thinking the same thing. Edison wasn’t the genius that he is portrayed as being, he was more of a business man with an eye for true genius. Telsa would be a fascinating movie subject: truly brilliant, ahead of his time, almost invented a death ray(!), had a somewhat odd personality, and his life ended somewhat tragically. There is the movie I’d watch.
No mention of him on jimmy kimmel responding to the mean tweet
I loved his mean tweet bit! For a moment I thought he was going to flip the bird, but then he just flashed his wedding ring. Laughed a bit at that.
It was from February though. Why do they air such old stuff now?
I laughed out loud when I saw Sophie.. mainly because I wore a very similar outfit to what she is wearing to work last week.. So I love what she is wearing.. Made me adore my white trench even more.
An other genius, just what he needs.
Edison was actually a pretty horrible person and a complex anti-hero, so at least the character would be interesting. I haven’t paid enough attention to Cumberbatch to participate in the backlash, and I understand, given the fickle nature of the movie biz, why he wants to work as much as possible while he’s getting lucrative opportunities. On the other hand, he is a bit over-exposed and maybe causing his own backlash? I thought he was good on The Imitation Game, but the film itself was lacking. That maudlin, saccharine scene toward the end where the filmmaker went all schmaltzy Spielberg on us and made him pathetic, extravagantly weepy and lonely was a little embarrassing, perhaps because I couldn’t realistically see an Englishman of Turing’s background and social status behaving that way even privately (and maybe he did, but on film it came across as a bit of tear-jerking fluff thrown in at the last minute to satisfy an American audience). It would be interesting to see Cumberbatch play such a quintessentially American character as Edison, who despite his legend and previous sanitized Hollywood portrayals was the embodiment of the “ugly American,” arrogant and materialistic and a major bully.
That’s the only downside for me. When I watch English actors, I want to hear them speak with English accents. I can hear American accents all day, everyday. The English accent, is like a bonus or cherry on top*. As for his playing this type again. Meh. After the popcorn of Strange, people maybe in the mood for a bit of depth.
*it seems like a travesty to hire Fassy and Winslett and have them speak with (middling) American accents in the Steve Jobs bio.
I’m still curious how Bale would have done in the role. He can do more convincing accents than Fassbender.
I totally agree with you, can’t stand English actors doing American accents. The only notable exception is Hugh Laurie as House.
>’m still curious how Bale would have done in the role. He can do more convincing accents than Fassbender.
I think Bale would’ve been better just generally. Jobs was an intense character, and Bale is really good at playing intense.
I have yet to hear a better American accent from a Brit than Hugh Laurie. I had no idea he was British until years later.
@EN: “I think Bale would’ve been better just generally. Jobs was an intense character, and Bale is really good at playing intense.”
Yea I think so too. Like I don’t doubt the acting from both is/would be good, but Bale, I think would have a better handle on the accent department.
He’s only overexposed on the internet. Regular people barely know who he is.
Agreed, Algernon.
Naturally, any backlash is also mainly limited to the niche of the web. Any actor trying to go from web flavor to general population will overexpose themselves to the web segment in the process.
I’m more enthralled by FarmersMarketGate. It’s like the Hunger Games!
I just want to say again how much I love those pics. I don’t know who styled them and who did Sophie’s make-up but they both look great.
Edison was an egomaniacal workaholic. Sounds like Cumberbatch can play that role without any effort. 🙂
I’m getting a little bit tired of biopics, no matter who the actor is… Is this a new trend?
Cinema nowadays is biopcs, heroes and …? Is there anything else?
pff…
Lots of other stuff available thankfully! (if one is inclined to check out movies outside of mainstream cinema)
One half of the year is full of superhero movies – the other is full of biopics. Yaaaaawn.
Superheroes = $$$
Biopics = Oscars
If people would spend their money on something other than superheroes, we’d at least get more diversity from populist movies, but they won’t. People will only go see superheroes, or maybe a space movie or something where you dangle a person from a very great height. Stuff that feels like an “experience.” People will no longer pay to go see people standing around talking because they can see that for free at home on TV and it’s just as good as movies anymore. We can complain forever about Hollywood making all the same stuff, but it’s only because that’s what people are willing to spend their money on.
> We can complain forever about Hollywood making all the same stuff, but it’s only because that’s what people are willing to spend their money on.
Agree 100%.
And just wanted to add – another money maker is YA movies (young adult). Even Kate Winslet and Julianne Moore are not above those.
Damn, son-give it a rest for a year or two. Enjoy your wife and your kid. There will still be tons of Oscar baity scripts to choose from after that. It’s not like the insanity collective that makes up a big portion of your fandom is going to go away. Well, I guess unless another show pops up with a pair of white guys as leads to which nonexistent homoerotic overtones are applied (what is it with hardcore fangirls and slash?).
We get it. You’re a Serious Actor. Give it a rest and do some comedy. You’re actually good in comedies. People will still like and respect you if you if you’re in comedies. Just please-no rom coms. I hate rom coms.
He needs another Stater for 10 on his CV. He’s got great comedic timing. Wes Anderson could put it to good use.
I always thought Cabin Pressure was one of the best things he’s ever done.
Wes Anderson – good call.
He was really good in 40 something too. It seemed really effortless. He now acts like he’s got a corn cob up his arse.
He was so great in that film! That scene where he “fights” still makes me chuckle. I think he’s at his best in an ensemble film, where he can steal a scene or two but doesn’t star in it.
Is Cabin Pressure available online for us Yanks?
@Nutballs There are load of websites with free CP.
I agree with people who say he should do more comedy and Wes Anderson is a god.
this movie has been getting made for 3 years lol, with different actors and directors so i doubt this is happening tbh
interesting although it’s being billed as a drama, it was more of a comedy, the script that was on the blacklist. yeah it had dramatic moments but also hilarious (intentionally)
I bought CP via Audible and price was reasonable. Don’t know if it’s available gratis. I’d like to see BC do something similar to Tilda Swinton – turn up in teeny parts in many films and always be a standout. I loved her recent turn in Trainwreck
I think he himself said he wanted to try comedy. I am assuming there are no good offers.
General Audiences still do not really know him so I feel he should take every good role that has awards potential he gets since he is not offered were good box-office material yet so no good comedies either. After Strange he could get more mainstream materia.
Please for the love of God just make more Sherlock. I think it’s the only project he really shines in.
So what other projects (besides Sherlock) is he signed up for besides Strange?
I can’t keep up with his workload any more! However, I would love to see which scripts (if any) he’s rejected in recent months. Not due to a scheduling conflict or the film got shelved, as that can’t be helped. I’d like to know what, if anything, he’s turning down and why.
Just what the doctor ordered: another wacko genius bio part, which I assume will be whitewashed, as by all accounts, Edison was not a particularly nice man. Perhaps at 40 Cumberbatch figures 1) the formula works for him, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, 2) he’s done Hamlet, the ne plus ultra of high-profile male Shakespearean roles apart from Lear and Henry V, and he’s too young for Lear and pushing too old for Henry, so he’s got those creds notched on the belt, and 3) it seems to be what gets awards, look at his pals: Eddie Redmayne in TOE and The Danish Girl, while I Saw the Light is getting bad reviews, Hiddles’ performance in it is getting great ones; then there’s Hardy and the two Kray boys, Depp and Whitey Bulger that will probably pull a few award noms, so, heck Cumberbatch figures he might as well give the formula one more shot. Best of luck, Ben.
Or maybe its the best of what he’s being offered? If Strange is a hit, he should lean heavily into producing. Perhaps not only for himself, but starring vehicles for other actors as well. Brad Pitt is doing well in this regard. Nice model to follow, IMO.
@delorb-I remember reading ages ago that he wanted to follow Brad Pitt’s and George Clooney’s business model and produce. Wonder what’s going on with Sunnymarch other than its art work?
I think its a mix of his thirstiness to break into the serious leading man roles in Hollywood, getting awards and just generally going big time career wise. He’s gotten a bit too ambitious. If anything, The Fifth Estate and The Imitation Game proved he can’t carry a big movie on his own – both performances were hammy with the supporting cast giving better and more memorable performances than him. He can and has done better.
He sees that careers that Redmayne, Hiddles and Fassy are having in Hollywood and wants a piece of it. He doesn’t necessarily have the movie star looks and on screen charisma that the others have to make a HW leading man. Those 3 are charismatic in their own way – Bendy is just a posh Englishman who can’t do accents. He is just desperate for an Oscar or any major award.
> doesn’t necessarily have the movie star looks and on screen charisma that the others have to make a HW leading man.
I am not going to argue about the looks, it is in the eye of the beholder. But he has charisma in spades.
And he can carry a movie as a leading man exactly because of the charisma. If there were doubts about his ability to be a lead he would’ve never gotten Dr. Strange where hundreds of billions are at stake.
TIG did very well in the box office, so I am not sure how it proves that he can’t lead a movie.
To be fair, TIG did so well because it had HW behind it. The script was awful.
How it managed to win an Oscar is one of the greatest mysteries of recent years. 🙂
And BC was hammier than a leg of Parma’s prosciutto. But yes, he has charisma, I agree.
And by the way, KK was great in it, so well done her!
Agree with Hermia on all points.
He sees that careers that Redmayne, Hiddles and Fassy are having in Hollywood and wants a piece of it.
——————————————————
Lol. Here,
“He sees that careers that Redmayne, Cumby and Fassy are having in Hollywood and wants a piece of it.
Fixed it for ya.
May Tommy have better luck next time.
YepYepYam, I love me the Hiddles, but your fix was spot on. No way would Hiddles career be considered going “better” than Cumby’s. Granted, Hiddles achieved fame at an earlier age than Cumby, but at 34, he’s not at the same place that Ben is at 39. The next year or two will be interesting to see if Tom bridges that gap or surpasses Ben.
It’s hard to beat someone with a hit TV show that has an international fanbase. It’s just a guess, but I’d think that more people watch Sherlock than watch Marvel films.
But as you said, he’s younger. And as of now he’s making the better choices in terms of films. He may not get Sherlock-like fame, but may get an Oscar before BC. It will be interesting to see. He seems more fearless, less predictable.
Tom is making more interesting choices and is willing to take risks on roles that are difficult or hard to market to the mainstream. Even if he doesn’t achieve A-list status as a leading man, he will have a CV with more variety and will earn respect if he does those roles well.
The fact that Ben got nominated for TIG shows me how little the AMPAS voters care about voting for quality performances. Ben over Jakey G??? WTF. We can name many such instances where good PR earned the vote. That statue means little in regards to actual best performances of the year. Plenty of great actors don’t get one.
@EN – he has a brand of charisma but I’ve noticed it doesn’t translate that well in some vehicles – or Fifth Estate wouldn’t have sunk like a stone, and TIG would have been a much bigger hit. I would agree that he DID carry TIG because he had to, not least because, as Hermia pointed out, the script was – well I wouldn’t say awful, but pedestrian and preachy. It was as if the producers and writers were terrified of their own subject. It should have been memorable and it wasn’t, and that said, BC was the best thing in it. He’s a leading man to a very selective audience, I think. And I think one thing Hardy and Hiddles are trying to do is cross that divide while still remaining ACT-ORS. Remains to be seen if they can and will.
believe it or not HW doesn’t hack every movie he touches. there’s nothing particularly scandalous here, so he’s more likely to leave the script as is. the script was pretty awesome tbh but this has been getting made for years so i’m kinda doubting it
I never thought HW did anything to this script. I think the script as written by its author is dismal and unworthy of the subject it ‘s supposed to depict. It lacks depth and subtlety and I could on. 🙂
no, i meant the current wars script is actually awesome. part comedy, part drama. been floating around the web for like 4 years now.
I think it will be fine. Edison is a very different character from Turing. He was a go-getter and walked over people.Not a nice fellow at all. Also, he was a ladies man, he was rather good looking.
Edison’s looks actually remind me of Ciaran Hinds. BC doesn’t look anything like him. It will be interesting to see what happens.
Yes Edison was rather charismatic and I just can’t see him pulling it off – it’ll be another Turing type character with a dodgy American accent. I can see someone like BCoop in the role.
The bio’s for Oscars schitck is getting old, Turing issn’t well known enough for him to win last year (plus Eddie gave the better performance) and with the bio’s this year (Steve Jobs and Lili Elbe) people will bore of them. He’s flogging a dead horse with the bio role for an Oscar campaign.
Totes agree with the “bios for Oscars getting old” point. And while Edison is a different character from Turing, he’s the same “type”, the same “slot” as it were. I dunno, I can’t escape a sense that Cumberbatch has peaked, TIG was supposed to be the turning point for him and it wasn’t. I think it’s partly what he picks and partly who he is. He’s a very good actor. But so are a dozen others out there. You watch the cast of Tinker Tailor work and it’s like listening to the Berlin Philharmonic play: Oldman (astonishing performance), Cumbers, Hardy, Hinds, Firth, my adored Mark Strong, Simon McBurney, Toby Jones, every one superb. I think to gauge Cumbers’ appeal you have to think of him minus Sherlock and then recalibrate . . .
Oldman is a great, great actor. He needs to be in a lot more films.
I like watching him he’s a good actor, I hope they don’t gloss Eddison over. Even though he was known as the wizard of Menlo park, he didn’t create the lightbulb just made it more marketable, he was a great inventor but dally did pay heavily for the X-ray machine.
How many bio-pics is this for him?
Well . . . shot at Hawkings, shot at Turing, shot at Assange, so I make Edison #4.
You know, I really like the way Colin Farrell has branched out in his late thirties and god knows the man is effing gorgeous. And yet when I saw him in “Triage” and “True Detective” and “In Bruges” he was so much not the leading man/Heir to Tyrone Power, subduing all that sexual charisma to other purposes and very, very different roles. I hope Cumbers does the same, but not with Marvel and more bio pics.
Add in Black Mass for #5 and 12 Years a Slave for #6. He was playing real people in those. And that’s just the films. He’s done bio-pics for television as well.
Agree. Farrell is making intriguing choices.
I think Farrell is a bad actor. But be it as it may, the lover-hero niche was his thing. In the end I don’t think he gave it up by choice. I think he simply lost out to the stronger competition and was forced to do other things.
I am glad he did since I don’t like him. But I don’t consider him a success or an example to follow at all.
Speaking of Farrell, I’m really interested in The Lobster, now that reviews are coming back positive.
Farrell to me isn’t the selling point, I’d watch it for Reilly and the fact that I need to see more of Whishaw’s work after seeing Hollow Crown.
Looking forward to The Lobster too, despite not liking Farrell either. He doesn’t do anything for me, but there’s Whishaw, whom I could happily watch as he reads a book. Which in a way I have done, as I watched him read part of The Iliad last month at the Almeida. 🙂
@Nutballs If you like BW, watch Bright Star. Now! 🙂
Thanks for the tip. hermia. I found it on Amazon and put it in my watchlist for after I finish my True Detective binge.
I wanted to add that BW, despite being very private and the opposite of fame-hungry is in loads of stuff: London Spy for TV, The Crucible in Broadway, The Danish Girl, Bond (Spectre), Suffragette and Lobster. He couldn’t be more versatile if he tried. So I am guessing you can diversify, work hard and avoid campaigning if you REALLY want to.
Vincent Van Gogh, William Pitt, William Carey, Stephen Hawking, Julian Assange, Billy Bulger, Alan Turing, William Prince Ford, Joseph Hooker, Lt James Langley, Guy Burgess, Richard III, Duke of Wellington, Dudley Moore, TS Eliot, Werner Heisenberg-compliments of Wikipedia. Maybe this will be the rom-com he really wants to do? 😉
I’m not sure what they’ll be including in the movie, but Edison was an absolutely terrible person who electrocuted animals in front of live audiences routinely to “show the effect of alternating current.” I think this will be one Cumberbatch movie I will pass on seeing.
200 years from now people will be saying – you know those people back in the 21st century were horrible. They killed animals and ate their meat. The barbarians!
Oh, and not just 50 years ago people considered themselves “good” even though they used chemical and nurclear weapons on humans and did biological experiments on humans in 3rd world countries.
Personally, I think 200 years from now people will be a lot worse than we are now.
I like Edison as a movie. I haven’t seen the script. I know it’s been floating for a while but Ben’s (not Benn) name has been attached for a while as well. IMDB is calling it. Not certain of course because anyone who buys the upgrade can change IMDB of course. He’d have a built in audience of an entire State who has been told that Edison is an important man in their history. Just someone tell him that Camden NJ is not the same as Camden London. That would be a mistake. But I’m interested to know what happened to Flying Horse and Yellow Birds. Have they just flown the coupe?