Benedict Cumberbatch to play a lead role for a proposed First World War movie based on RC Sherriff’s Journey’s End.
The Sherlock star is being considered to play hero Captain Stanhope in the film about a group of officers fighting in the trenches, the Sunday Times reports.
In the original 1928 play, Stanhope is looked up to as a father figure by his men despite despising war with a powerful bitterness.
Cumberbatch has starred in a war drama before, as Christopher Tietjens in the BBC’s Parade’s End.
Other British actors rumoured for a part include ,Marvels most famous villain, Tom Hiddleston, remembered for his role as the doomed Captain James Nicholls in Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and Eddie Redmayne, who took the lead as officer Stephen Wraysford in the BBC adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’ Birdsong.
The project has been delayed for years due to complications surrounding deals made as far back as 1929.
A movie was made in 1930 but banned by the Nazis in 1933, before a TV adaptation followed in 1988 starring Jeremy Northam as Stanhope. Hopefully this time film will reach the cinemas.
