The fallout from the ghastly allegations aboutHarvey Weinsteinthis week continues to expand. If much of this week was focused on where Weinstein would land in relation to his work with The Weinstein Company and the law, this weekend brings news about how the articles in the New York Times and The New Yorker will affect the release calendar for The Weinstein Company. AsDeadline reports, the company is going ahead with the November 22nd release ofPolaroid, a horror film, andPaddington 2will still be released on January 12th. Seeing as these films are both genre-based and have little chance of being celebrated outside of box office receipts or home video markets, it’s no surprise that they are holding steady, butThe Current Waris another situation altogether.
The Current War was originally to be released on Black Friday, just in time for the Thanksgiving crowd and to make its intentions for Oscar glory clear following itstepid response at TIFF. As Deadline reports, however,Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s film, which looks at the rivalry between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (Benedict CumberbatchandMichael Shannon), is now being pushed back to 2018. The Weinstein Company didn’t make it clear when we should expect the film to be released in the new year but this would effectively end its Oscar hopes in any year. And if the reports out of Toronto are correct,The Current Warwas looking primarily at nominations for technical work rather than the film’s writing, performances, or direction, if anything at all.
There are plenty of reasons to imagine whyThe Current Warwas pushed, not the least of which would be to just keep the Weinstein name out of the press for as long as possible for the rest of 2017. There’s also the matter of Cumberbatch’s firm, unsparing reaction to the reports about Harvey Weinstein this week, which included theSherlockactor saying he was “utterly disgusted” by the “revelations.” That would be enough to make a company rethink release alone but in this case, its a drop in the ocean compared to what we’ve come to understand over the last seven or eight days. We might not even have a full grasp of this bombshell whenThe Current Waris finally released. Let’s hope that’s not the case.
Here’s the synopsis forThe Current War:
The Current War is a dramatic story of the cutthroat race between electricity titans Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to determine whose electrical system would power the modern world.
