Does Benedict Cumberbatch ever take a holiday? According to IMDb, the British actor has at least eleven projects currently in development, including the not-inconsequential matter of an Avengers-sized Infinity War. Now Cumberbatch has added another string to his increasingly busy bow: he’s signed up to star in fantasy drama How To Stop Time.
The film is an adaptation of a yet-to-be-published novel by Matt Haig, a bestselling author known for children’s books like Shadow Forest and The Girl Who Saved Christmas. How To Stop Time is his first adult novel in some time, and tells the story of a man named Tom Hazard (Cumberbatch), who has been alive for centuries due to an “extremely rare condition”.
Always changing identities to avoid detection, he has settled on working as a history teacher in London. It is, according to a statement given to Variety, “a wildly imagined love story that spans centuries and continents” – sounding a little like a cross between About Time and Cloud Atlas.
There’s no word on who will direct or adapt the screenplay, though Haig has some screenwriting experience on Paddington, so he may opt to adapt his own novel. Cumberbatch’s production company, SunnyMarch, have acquired the rights to the book and Cumberbatch will also executive produce. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate. We worry about him sometimes.
No word on when filming begins, either, but the novel version of How To Stop Time arrives in July. Haig has tweeted about the news in the most enthusiastic terms.
Benedict Cumberbatch starring in The Child In Time TV adaptation.