The 1893 World’s Fair has made small guest appearances on the big screen and small screen, but has yet to be a major featured setting for a film or television series. The 2005 documentary film EXPO – Magic of the White City, narrated by Gene Wilder, (link to online video) uses still images of the Columbian Exposition along with video footage (oddly chosen, in some cases) to tell the story of the history of the fair. Advances in computer-generated graphics offer filmmakers unprecedented opportunities to recreate the spectacle of the White City, and many Columbian Exposition enthusiasts have been waiting eagerly to see what might become of plans for a proposed film version of Eric Larson’s best-selling book, The Devil in the White City.
Michael Mitnick wrote the original screenplay for The Current War, though the subject matter of the “battle of the currents” between the developers of direct current (Thomas Edison, funded by General Electric) and those backing alternating current (Nikola Tesla, funded by Westinghouse) has been addressed extensively. One can assemble a small library of books on the topic, with titles including Jill Jonnes’ well-received Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World (Random House, 2003), Stephanie Sammartino McPherson’s children’s book War of the Currents: Thomas Edison Vs Nikola Tesla (Twenty-First Century Books, 2012), Tom McNichol’s AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War (Jossey-Bass, 2013), Nigel Cawthorne’s Tesla Vs Edison: The Life-Long Feud that Electrified the World (Chartwell Books, 2016), the newly released and appropriately named e-book The Current War: A Battle Story Between Two Electrical Titans, Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse by Adam Cline, and several others.
Documentary videos on the subject include the episode “Edison Vs. Tesla” (online video link) from the National Geographic Channel’s 2015 series American Genius (which completely skips over the 1893 fair), PBS’s American Experience episodes on “Edison” and on “Tesla,” as well as PBS’s 2007 show Tesla: Master of Lightning.
A scene set at the Columbian Exposition being shot on Alexandra Palace Way (image from onset-hollywood.com)
Entertainment Weekly writes that The Current War tells the story of Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) as they “set their sights on powering the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.” Reports from those who have seen an early cut of the film, as well as some on-set snapshots, indicate that some of the action does take place on the Columbian Exposition grounds in Chicago. Recreating the experience of fairgoers witnessing the dramatic lighting of the great buildings of the Court of Honor, seeing giant spotlights illuminate the golden Statue of the Republic, or stepping into the future as they entered the Great Hall of Electricity could be a spectacular visual image for any film.
The Current War premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2017. Some tepid early reviews apparently resulted in further editing. Then came the shocking news in early October of the charges against the film’s now-disgraced producer, which has led to the film being shelved for now. The Weinstein Company reportedly plans to release The Current War sometime in 2018.
If the blown fuse for The Current War can be reset, the White City will appear on the big screen for it 125th anniversary.
Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, whose alternating current system electrified the 1893 World’s Fair.