(Photo: Eric Charbonneau/Invision for Twentieth Century Fox)
Speculation on the ‘world wide web’ recently is that many people have been keen to see Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange in Marvel Studios’ forthcoming Doctor Strange film, but scheduling means it is highly unlikely to happen.
Cumberbatch, has been at Comic-Con for Penguins of Madagascar (in which he voices a superspy wolf) and presumably also for The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies (where he voices the Necromancer and the dragon Smaug).
Cumberbatch’s schedule includes 12 weeks of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the summer of 2015, at London’s Barbican.
Commenting on http://www.usatoday.com, Cumberbatch said ” I can’t move the play, you’ve got to do that within a certain amount of time just to be fair on the culture. If you announce that you’re going to do it, you need to stick to that because other people are waiting to do theirs.”
He also has screen work upcoming, including The Imitation Game, a Sherlock Christmas special and after that ‘probably’, The Lost City of Z and a fourth season of Sherlock.
He will also be playing Richard III for BBC2 as part of the Hollow Crown series. The actor stars as the character in Henry VI Part 1 and 2 as well as Richard III.
Cumberbatch says. “It’s a nice run when you really get to understand why this disabled son of these athletic Kennedy-esque jock guys is slowly festering his resentment and why he sets his sights on the crown at the cost of everything in his path. You don’t just get the slight wink of a psychopath at the beginning of ‘Now is the Winter of our discontent.’ You know what’s come before, you know who it is saying that, so I’m really thrilled to bring that version of the character to the screen.”
Hamlet: Benedict Cumberbatch takes on the title role of Shakespeare’s great tragedy. Directed by Lyndsey Turner (Posh, Chimerica) and produced by Sonia Friedman Productions, the Barbican presents an exclusive twelve week run of this compelling new production in summer 2015: 6th August to 31st October 2015.
As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to avenge his father’s death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state. http://hamlet.barbican.org.uk/
Sunday 27th July 2014