Petya Jordanoff
Staff Writer
Days after his Sherlock co-star Martin Freeman was announced to play doomed king Richard III on stage, BBC Two confirmed on its Twitter feed that Benedict Cumberbatch will trade his kingdom for a horse as the titular king in a new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III.
The project will be the latest addition to The Hollow Crown series, which features TV adaptations of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V; the historic kings were played respectively by Ben Wishaw, Jeremy Irons, and Tom Hiddleston.
Richard III will be produced by the Bafta-winning team behind The Hollow Crown, including Sam Mendes, with Dominic Cooke directing in his screen debut.
“I can’t wait to work with Dominic Cooke again to bring this complex, funny and dangerous character to life,” Cumberbatch shared.
Executive producer Pippa Harris praised Benedict’s “range and dexterity as an actor” which she claimed make him “the perfect choice to bring one of Shakespeare’s towering characters to television.”
BBC’s drama controller Ben Stephenson added that he is “one of the world’s most brilliant and in-demand actors.”
Cumberbatch too will soon appear on the London stage, playing Hamlet at the Barbican in 2015.
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