Thomas Edison - Bad Robot Developing Film Based on the Scientist

[Walts Ghost]

JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Developing a Thomas Edison Movie

Thomas Edison, aka the Wizard of Menlo Park, was one of the most significant inventors in the US during the industrial age, and also a ruthless businessman. Soon he might also be the subject of a film from Paramount and JJ Abrams‘ company Bad Robot. Reports say the companies are developing an Edison film that will portray him as “a rugged eccentric genius.”

The Wrap reports, but doesn’t have much more info. There’s another Edison film in the works from The Weinstein Company — that one would chronicle the battle between Edison and George Westinghouse. And while The Wrap notes that there hasn’t been much movement on that film in a while, the arrival of a new Edison film on the scene might be all that’s needed to kick it into gear.

The success of films like The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything demonstrates that there’s a healthy audience (and a real marketability) for biopics about some of our most influential and eccentric inventors and scientific personalities, especially if there’s a little conflict associated with their life story. Edison has plenty of conflict in his history, too, as he created, patented and sold everything from communications devices and standards to light bulbs to motion picture cameras. There’s no shortage of story material — more a problem of deciding where to place focus.

Slashfilm