Los Angeles, Nov 1 (IANS): After wooing the audience with gamut of roles including Sherlock Holmes and the English mathematical genius Alan Turing, actor Benedict Cumberbatch now play inventor Thomas Edison in his latest film, "The Current War".

Talking about the role, Cumberbatch said: "It's about stripping the man from his image of himself as a god of industry - a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg - into being an embittered loser. But then he dusts himself off and he's off again in search of a new prize. The wheels don't stop turning in his head just because he's fixated with one battle and fighting court cases over patents, he's still doing the good stuff in tandem. He's a remarkable man with many, many human flaws."

The film, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, is about visionary scientists Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse locked in a battle to light up the world.

While Cumberbatch plays Edison, Michael Shannon is cast as Westinghouse. Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, Katherine Waterston, Tuppence Middleton and Matthew Macfadyen also feature in the film, which was released in India on November 1 by PVR Pictures.