Deadline brings word that Eddie Redmayne, star of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has closed a deal to board The Last Days Of Night.
There, he’ll join Morten Tyldum and Graham Moore, director and screenwriter behind hit period drama The Imitation Game. Released in 2014, it nabbed Moore an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and it’s understood studio Black Bear Pictures is hoping to strike gold once more.
Lifting inspiration from Moore’s own novel of the same name, an official statement relayed from the studio outlines the thrilling narrative at the heart of The Last Days of Night, which essentially revolves around a legal spat between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse at a time when both inventors were racing to patent the use of electric light.
As Black Bear’s description goes, Tyldum and Moore’s latest venture is all “about the nature of genius, the cost of ambition, and the battle to electrify America. New York, 1888. The miracle of electric light is in its infancy. Thomas Edison has won the race to the patent office and is suing his only remaining rival, George Westinghouse, for the unheard of sum of one billion dollars. To defend himself, Westinghouse makes a surprising choice in his attorney: He hires an untested twenty-six-year-old fresh out of Columbia Law School, Cravath. The task facing Cravath is beyond daunting. Edison proves to be a formidable, wily, and dangerous opponent. Yet this young, unknown attorney shares with his famous opponent a compulsion to win at all costs.”
The Last Days of Night is expected to enter production early next year ahead of a theatrical release in 2017. Before that, though, Redmayne will educate audiences on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them come November.
