Benedict Cumberbatch is definitely an overbooked actor. While he is currently donning the costume of “Doctor Strange”, the actor will star in a spy miniseries called “Londongrad”. An HBO project that will adapt a true story to the small screen.
Benedict Cumberbatch: before Doctor Strange, Sherlock
For a long time now, Benedict Cumberbatch has been a known figure to the public. Indeed, this graduate in dramatic art began to unveil his charisma in 2004 on the small screen via the TV movie Hawking. His large size and unmistakable voice quickly won over British viewers. Chaining small roles in several films (Come back to me, two sisters for a king), however, he achieved fame in 2010 thanks to one of the best TV series around : Sherlock. Indeed, in a contemporary version of the adventures of the famous detective, the actor impresses everyone during the years that will count the series (well accompanied by Martin Freeman, in the role of Watson).
Winner of an Emmy Award in 2014, Benedict Cumberbatch will then taste a more important recognition in the cinema. That he plays for Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave) or Steven Spielberg (War Horse) through JJ Abrams (Star Trek: Into Darkness) and Peter Jackson (saga The Hobbit), the actor is excellent. He even gets his first Oscar nomination for best actor. for Imitation Game. This new notoriety therefore attracts Marvel who chooses him to become the powerful wizard Doctor Strange, from October 2016.
From a true story
The actor will therefore make his comeback on the small screen via HBO and Londongrad. This television miniseries written by David Scarpa (The Man in the High Castle) is taken from real events. Indeed, Benedict Cumberbatch will play the KGB agent named Alexander Litvinenko. The latter had made international headlines, murdered in 2006 by poisoning. Having become a whistleblower at the end of the 90s, he had, at the time, revealed confidential information about the missions he was to carry out at the time for the KGB. In particular the direct order to kill the businessman and politician Boris Berezovsky.
Pursued by the FSB in three consecutive trials, he then finds refuge in Great Britain, but ends up being assassinated. If this has never been confirmed, current Russian President Vladimir Putin is suspected to be directly responsible for his death.
Londongrad will therefore tell this incredible story, taken from Alan Cowell’s book and entitled The Terminal Spy, which is exploring this case. Meanwhile, Benedict Cumberbatch is highly anticipated as Doctor Strange in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.