Benedict Cumberbatch to play yet another tortured genius in The Current War

Next up in Benedict Cumberbatch’s personal quest to portray every tortured genius that ever lived? He’ll tackle Thomas Edison in Oscar-bait The Current War.

Some day, Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch is going to play a regular person, right? He’ll do a movie where he plays a mailman or the guy who restocks the shelves at Staples. He’ll just be completely normal. Boring, even. And it’ll be great, because it’ll be unexpected.

Unfortunately, that day is not today. Because Cumberbatch’s next project has him taking on yet another tortured genius role. And it further proves that he’s pretty much going to get typecast as “the smartest guy in the room” for the rest of his life.

This time, he’ll play iconic inventor Thomas Edison in upcoming historical drama The Current War.

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the film follows the rivalry between Edison and George Westinghouse, as the two inventors compete to create a delivery system for electricity in America. (And, surprisingly, this is a lot more exciting than it sounds.)

Cumberbatch stars opposite Michael Shannon as Westinghouse, with a typically-all star cast behind them that includes Katherine Waterson, Tom Holland and Matthew Macfadyen. (Personally, I’m very ready for Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla. That seems an exceptionally perfect fit.)

Watch the trailer for yourselves below:

As crazy as this whole set up sounds? This is a true story. All of this did actually happen.

The so-called “War of Currents” was a big deal in the late 1800s. During this period, Edison, Westinghouse and their respective companies went head to head on multiple occasions. Edison championed direct current electricity while Westinghouse backed alternating current, with both betting the future of their businesses on it. And the ensuing face off between them got very dramatic, very quickly.

Though Westinghouse eventually triumphed (we still use alternating current today), the battle between them was not without some truly wild moments. These included everything from competing experiments to propaganda campaigns to publicly performing electrocution tests on animals.

Basically: Sometimes history really is stranger than fiction. Even in the instances you would never expect it to be. (Like the rise of electrical power in America.)

Next: Dan Stevens to star in The Man Who Invented Christmas

Given this cast and premise, The Current War certainly seems like prime Oscar bait. So you’ll probably hear a lot about this film over the next few months. But since the film itself looks pretty intriguing, that might actually be okay.

The Current War will premiere at this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, and hit theaters nationwide on Nov. 24.