Just because Benedict Cumberbatch starred in one of the year's biggest wide-release flops doesn't mean he's become persona non grata for Hollywood executives. According to Deadline.com, Cumberbatch is the top choice to replace Tom Hardy in Sony's upcoming drama "Everest." Doug Liman is set to direct the film, which will focus on British mountain climber George Mallory (the role Cumberbatch would play), who died during a June 1924 trek up Mount Everest. Mallory's body wasn't recovered until 1999.
If Cumberbatch playing a lost adventurer sounds familiar, that's because it is: the 37-year-old star was attached to play explorer Percy Fawcett in "The Lost City of Z," an adaptation of David Grann's non-fiction book about Fawcett's attempts to find the lost Amazon city. (Fawcett was lost and presumed dead after an exhibition in 1925.)
Beyond all that, Cumberbatch is set to play mathematician Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game" (filming now) and is still rumored as a possible candidate to join J.J. Abrams' new "Star Wars" film.
"I don't know. Who knows, who knows? Nothing is known of that," Cumberbatch said when the "Star Wars" rumor was broached by The Hollywood Reporter's Stephen Galloway . "I worked with J.J. [Abrams]. Obviously, he knows. Everyone who wants to be part of that film, they know about."
For conspiracy theorists, "Star Wars" is set to shoot in early 2014, but "Everest" won't go in front of cameras until March of 2014.
For more on "Everest," and the status of a second "Everest" movie, head to Deadline.com.
[via Deadline.com]
