Much of what is written about Cumberbatch is beyond his control. If he or his career choices have been criticised in the media more in the past year than in the previous decade, it is a reflection of his celebrity. The public and media tend to build up celebrities only to try to bring them back down, as has been discussed in this chapter. Yet his fans want him to succeed and to provide them more opportunities to see him, if not in person, then on screen. Even rumours of his next project receive just as many headlines as when he commits to a role. Hardly a week in entertainment news passes without at least one rumoured role for Cumberbatch, and this type of publicity reminds the industry and the public that Cumberbatch is an actor in great demand, even when he is not currently working on a project.
In January 2014 he received a great deal of publicity for signing on to the “terrorist thriller” Blood Mountain as a government contractor escorting a highly wanted terrorist across hostile terrain[329] - a role that would broaden Cumberbatch’s range of mainstream film roles. Although Blood Mountain was announced as commencing principal photography in April 2014 in Morocco,[330] the film apparently did not generate the necessary funding in time for the projected start date. As a result, when Cumberbatch the actor did not have a project scheduled, Cumberbatch the celebrity accepted more offers - for photo ops, autograph sessions, and on-stage Q&As at fan conventions in Birmingham (U.K.) and Sydney and Adelaide (Australia); a visit to the Hay Festival for dramatic readings; commentator/presenter jobs abroad and at home; and appearances at everything from restaurant openings to society galas and charity events.
These activities kept Cumberbatch’s name in front of the public, beyond paparazzi or fan sightings, but the nature of the publicity had shifted drastically since 2012 and from official film public relations in 2013. This time the focus was clearly on Cumberbatch the celebrity, not on his work or even on his spectacular talent or a particular skill. In many cases, he simply needed to show up, answer a few questions, or, at times, merely look handsomely attired and debonair in order to make media news. Such a shift illustrates that the “transition” phase in Cumberbatch’s career has ended - he is now valued as much as a celebrity to attract media and fan attention as he is a talented actor to grace a new project.
Cumberbatch only has to tease a character or film genre in order for casting rumours to make news. When he said he would like a role in Star Wars, he proved his fan cred by speaking Wookiee on The Graham Norton Show,[331] and the media speculated which role he was being considered to play. However, when the cast list was finally announced in May 2014, Cumberbatch’s name was absent.
In the past year, he has been rumoured to star in, attached to, signed for, dropped out of, or reported interested in a role in Guillermo Del Toro’s horror film, Crimson Peak; Gary Oldman’s proposed biopic of Eadweard Muybridge, Flying Horse;[332] a Disney-backed Marvel Studios film,[333] later identified as Doctor Strange;[334] Alfonso Cuaron’s proposed Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them-based film; [335] and World War I drama Journey’s End,[336] among others.
The announcement for the latter is particularly interesting because more than twenty U.K. and U.S. articles repeated what essentially was a casting rumour linking Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston to what may become a film based on a 1928 play. Cumberbatch was suggested for the lead role, one that would reunite him with War Horse co-star Hiddleston in another war story in which they would play officers. The potential film, as described in the casting “news” articles, faces many problems on the way to being green lighted, and hedge-phrases like “Hiddleston could play” or “Cumberbatch is being linked to a possible film” indicate that the project was very much at the wish-list stage when the “news” was released. Nevertheless, even the slimmest possibility of the next Cumberbatch film project leads to media frenzy, and a headline touting “Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston Linked to New Film Journey’s End” is certain to attract the attention of thousands of Cumberbatch and/or Hiddleston fans. That, not the possible future film or Cumberbatch’s eventual casting, is the real news behind such articles.
By the Cannes Film Festival in May 2014, however, Cumberbatch again was attached to a bona fide film project - this time The Yellow Birds, based on a multiple award-winning book by Kevin Powers about friendships developed during battle in the Iraq war. Cumberbatch was cast as the slightly older officer looking out for the book’s young male protagonists; as an American playing a reserved, remote sergeant, the part would call on him to use yet another American accent but would also recall reserved, remote Major Jamie Stewart in War Horse. The Yellow Birds modernises that type of character into an edgier, more morally ambiguous soldier and gives Cumberbatch, a veteran of a few twentieth century military roles, the opportunity to play a modern man caught up in a war zone.
That the announcement was made at Cannes added a layer of prestige to the project and reminded industry deal makers that, a year earlier, Cumberbatch had been touted as a selling point (or at least a distribution deal-worthy name) for The Imitation Game, a film generating a lot of buzz in 2014.
A few days later Cumberbatch joined the cast of the already-filming Black Mass, the story of Whitey Bulger, starring Johnny Depp as the criminal who lived on the lam for sixteen years before being captured and convicted. Cumberbatch replaced Guy Pearce, who ended up with scheduling conflicts, in the role of Bulger brother Billy, a law-abiding Massachusetts Senator.[337] Sightings of cast and crew working around Boston kept the U.S. media busy in mid-2014, and photos of Cumberbatch appeared nearly daily during his on-location filming. [Headlines also announced where he dined, what he ate (e.g., his first cannoli, his last lobster before leaving town), and with whom he shared a meal.]
Such a role, casting Cumberbatch as the “good brother,” increases his string of upstanding characters while adding the heightened visibility of being seen in a film with megastar Depp. Even Depp’s movies that are not blockbusters attract a lot of media attention during filming and publicity leading to the premiere. Stepping into a role when the film is already in production also enhances Cumberbatch’s reputation as a go-to actor; he is a professional who can get up to speed quickly for a role and help keep a production running on schedule. Furthermore, acting in another Warner Bros.-backed film makes him even more visible to U.S. audiences before the movie is distributed worldwide.
In August 2014, Cumberbatch was signed to yet another Warner Bros. film, The Jungle Book: Origins. The actor previously worked in the studio’s Hobbit films, but the Jungle Book provided a further New Zealand connection - the animated film’s director is Andy Serkis, well known for his mo-cap performance as Gollum in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies.
Cast as man-eating tiger Shere Khan in the animated story, Cumberbatch plays the villain of the animal kingdom.[338] The role seems ideally suited for the actor’s vocal talents; Cumberbatch’s deep voice provided the necessary menace both to Star Trek’s Khan and The Hobbit’s Smaug. Shere Khan also balances Cumberbatch’s more heroic Classified in the animated Penguins of Madagascar and illustrates the actor’s range of characters within animated films.
The Warner Bros. Jungle Book, set for an October 2016 release, competes with Disney’s version of Mowgli’s story, which cast Idris Elba as its Shere Khan. However, the Disney adaptation was scheduled to arrive a year earlier, in October 2015,[339] providing enough cinematic distance to ensure the Warner Bros. film could be evaluated on its own merits.
Although voice and/or mo-cap roles have cropped up more frequently in Cumberbatch’s schedule in the past few years, he also looks for adventure in live-action features that can offer another dimension to his cinematic career. Another hot prospect, according to press releases in late 2013, is The Lost City of Z, a property owned by Brad Pitt’s Plan B production company for which Cumberbatch worked on 12 Years a Slave. The Lost City of Z could make mainstream audiences see Cumberbatch in a different light: as an explorer and adventurer, and po
ssibly the star of a franchise. As 2014 progressed with no word of a shooting date, this film, too, seemed to be nothing more than a promising non-starter and a publicity-rich rumour.
However, during interviews months later, director James Gray casually mentioned that the film would go forward, possibly as early as September 2014 but more likely in January 2015. A key part of filmmaking is having the funding and the talent in place at the same time, and Gray said in an interview that, by May 2014, he had already raised money for the film.[340] A month later, headlines proclaimed that Cumberbatch would begin filming in Northern Ireland early in 2015, with jungle scenes to be shot in Colombia.[341]
Gray added that Cumberbatch is “perfectly cast” in the role of the 1930s Amazon explorer Percy Fawcett, who enters the jungle and is never heard from again. Indeed, author David Grann’s description of the real-life Fawcett in his 2010 book, on which the film is based, illustrates that ideal casting. Fawcett was extremely fit, “his long arms corded with muscles”. His eyes were an indeterminate colour: “some thought they were blue, others gray”.[342] He was “tall and lean,... a natural athlete”.[343] He excelled in a course for explorers held at the National Geographic Society and, through the decades, carefully planned his numerous expeditions. He was well educated at public school, as appropriate for his class, but often felt uneasy with Victorian social conventions. Nevertheless, he was a gentleman concerned about observing social propriety. Cumberbatch thinks of Fawcett as “quite obsessive, he’s quite determined and he strives to conquer everyone’s cynicism about this lost city of gold that he believes exists in the Amazon”. The explorer’s tale is “epic filmmaking with fantastic characters”.[344]
Interestingly enough, there is even a Sherlock connection with Fawcett’s story. Grann mentions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle several times; Fawcett reportedly was the model for Conan Doyle’s Lord John Roxton in The Lost World.[345] In a roundabout way, when Cumberbatch portrays Fawcett, he illustrates yet another Conan Doyle character.
A film like The Lost City of Z, if done well, could further raise Cumberbatch’s profile as a film star, one who can carry an action movie that appeals to a broader audience base. Because Fawcett’s explorations took place during more than twenty years, beginning when he was in his thirties, Cumberbatch could, theoretically, launch an action-adventure franchise to span the next decade of his career - if box office encourages a sequel.
Among these many rumoured roles, at least some eventually turn into potential star vehicles for Cumberbatch. As he said in an interview with an Australian newspaper, “I’d hate to think anyone is sick of the sight of me, although I wouldn’t blame them”.[346] By balancing new projects interspersed with celebrity events, Cumberbatch retains his exclusivity as an actor tapped for prestigious roles but ensures that his name constantly remains in entertainment news. Although Cumberbatch’s plethora of celebrity-preeminent activities in early 2014 was, in part, the result of his acting achievements in the past year, he also must be careful not to seem to be seen everywhere, just as a celebrity, when he is between projects. In the career he is building, acting (or, down the line, additionally producing or directing) must come first, with celebrity a secondary, if helpful, aspect of his long-term career.
Professional events like the Hay Festival and Chelsea Flower Show are relatively easy performances, comparatively speaking, but illustrate his classy nature. Celebrity events like Prince William’s gala dinner for the Royal Marsden Hospital, the Met Gala, or even an appearance at an exclusive restaurant opening or the Park Theatre’s anniversary underscore his A-list social status among those in the entertainment community. They balance events like fan conventions that please his fanbase and fill the gaps between acting jobs.
The Films of 2014
At San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in July 2014, Cumberbatch fielded questions about The Penguins of Madagascar, one of three films being released in 2014 in which he has a role. A few days later he joined Hobbit cast members in Hall H to talk about the final film in the trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies.
Rumours circulating before SDCC suggested that Cumberbatch might be on site to do more than promote an animated film or his roles within a very large Hobbit ensemble; he might announce his casting as Doctor Strange at the highly anticipated Marvel panel. Cumberbatch indicated that the film’s scheduling was a problem: “it couldn’t work out because I’m doing a little play called Hamlet in London”. His comment suggested that he had been in contact with Marvel, giving credence to the rumours, but would not take on the role of Doctor Strange. Thus, Cumberbatch’s first live (not via satellite) appearance at SDCC turned out to be “only” to preview and promote two of his three films scheduled for release late in 2014.
Whereas Cumberbatch was a big hit at SDCC, Variety reported from the Penguins panel in Hall H that the “6,500 person hall wasn’t full and the fanboy crowd didn’t seem wowed by the very family-friendly fare”.[347] Other reports noted, however, that fans dressing as Sherlock Holmes lined up early to be sure to get a seat in the largest Comic-Con hall, and moderator Craig Ferguson threatened fans that SDCC would be cancelled if the audience asked Sherlock questions. Even if Penguins was not to all SDCC attendees’ taste, Cumberbatch the actor/ celebrity received enormous publicity worldwide and plenty of fan love in San Diego. As an MTV headline explained, “Every Celeb at Comic-Con Wanted a Pic with Benedict Cumberbatch”.[348]
As in 2013, the slate of films released in 2014 shows great diversity: The Penguins of Madagascar, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and The Imitation Game. In only one, however, is Cumberbatch visually recognisable on screen - his leading role as Alan Turing in the highly touted Imitation Game.
The Penguins of Madagascar
Cumberbatch voices Classified, a “debonair secret agent” in the animated feature The Penguins of Madagascar, scheduled for release in time for family holiday viewing. The spinoff of the popular Madagascar (2005) focuses on the antics of the penguins who wowed audiences in the original film and their television series. Playing someone Bond-like is no stretch for Cumberbatch, whose Sherlock increasingly seems to be moving in a 007 direction and who periodically is rumoured to take over the Bond film franchise after Daniel Craig. This time, however, the secret agent is a wolf, and the animated character shares high cheekbones and refined style with the actor who gives him a voice. Classified, as his name suggests, leads an animal protective service that becomes involved with the penguins during an espionage caper pitting them against a villain octopus (John Malkovich). “I don’t know what it’s like to be a penguin, but I do know what it’s like to be a super-duper-smooth classified agent,”[349] Cumberbatch announced when the film’s first images were released.
Unlike other voice roles, such as the malevolent Smaug, Classified has “a lot of Benedict” in him. One of Cumberbatch’s first auditions was as a James Bond-style character in a videogame, and although he did not get that job, he had a good time mimicking a secret agent during the audition. The actor explained that, like many boys, while growing up he had “fantasies of secret agents and being a spy”.[350] Classified provides wish-fulfilment for Cumberbatch’s inner child.
When asked during an SDCC panel how he prepared for the role, Cumberbatch joked that he “worked in Yellowstone Park as a wolf for a while. It got a bit hairy - no pun intended - when I became the alpha male, and I realised quickly that two of the other wolves were Christian Bale and Daniel Day-Lewis”.[351] This quote was republished across media as one of the hits of SDCC, but Cumberbatch’s choice of packmates is a fascinating indicator of his thoughts, even in jest, about his place in Hollywood’s hierarchy. Although well known for his research prior to playing a role, Cumberbatch is not a Method actor like Bale or Day-Lewis, who, some critics might agree (tongue firmly in cheek), would go to the extreme of living as a “wolf” in Yellowstone to play an animated character.
Once again, being identified with a popul
ar money maker only helps Cumberbatch’s career. The three Madagascar movies have made $1.8 billion internationally, with each film surpassing its predecessor.[352] DreamWorks Animation illustrated their high hopes for the penguins’ spinoff by moving it up in the release schedule so that it would take on the Horrible Bosses sequel and be released a week after the latest Hunger Games instalment - tough competition during the holidays (being released during Thanksgiving weekend in the U.S.) that DreamWorks Animation obviously believes Cumberbatch and the penguins can handle. Penguins, along with the third Hobbit film, scheduled for a December release, markets Cumberbatch to a multi-generational family audience while emphasising his vocal talents.
The Imitation Game
In contrast to family-oriented fiction (even if The Battle of the Five Armies is in many ways a dark film), The Imitation Game is based on the true story of mathematician Alan Turing. The film plays to some of Cumberbatch’s acting strengths: a historic figure (Turing), an intellectual (a British intelligence code specialist during World War II), and a controversial subject matter (the sentence of chemical castration for the convicted homosexual, posthumously pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013). The role allows Cumberbatch to play a character made more sympathetic with decades of social hindsight, to look handsome in period costumes, and to reap the publicity both from the recent pardon and questions about whether the relationship between Turing and Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), as portrayed on film, was in reality pragmatic or romantic. Throughout filming and post-production, The Imitation Game stayed on critics’ radar.
After the initial casting announcements and photos of Knightley or Cumberbatch on location, the next big publicity after the film wrapped in autumn 2013 involved information about the film’s purchase for distribution. Footage shown at the European Film Market in Berlin sparked considerable interest in the film and led the Weinstein Co. to plunk down “a hearty $7 million for U.S. rights”.[353] The Weinstein Co. is well known for films that earn many awards or nominations (such as The King’s Speech and Philomena), and the purchase was promoted as a good sign for the film as a potential Oscar contender for the 2015 awards. The fifteen-minute reel cut from a film that had just gone into post-production impressed bidders, and five eagerly tried to grab it before the Weinstein Co. made the definitive bid. Especially because film sales during the Sundance Film Festival had been a bit slow only a few weeks earlier, the price paid for The Imitation Game piqued a lot of interest.
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