You wouldn’t think the difficulties deciding whether we use AC or DC eletrical current would be worth making a movie about, but in American it was actually an incredibly bitter war between Westinghouse and Edison, with both realising the potential dividends of having their system adopted throughout the US were so huge they’d do anything to ensure they won.

Now Variety reports that Timur Bekmambetov has just attached himself to direct The Current War, which is about the fight between the companies, based on Michael Mitnick‘s spec script. It really was a bitter battle, full of public fighting and increasingly extreme stunts. For example Edison once used Westinghouse’s current to execute a rogue elephant in the hope he could prove how dangerous it was (he was admittedly safer), and even tried to get people to refer to being electrocuted as being ‘Westinghoused’.

There is no cast attached yet, though Sacha Baron Cohen was reportedly interested in playing Edison at one point. It isn’t clear whe the movie might shoot.