Alex Moss EditorBenedict Cumberbatch, last seen causing Kirk and The Enterprise all manner of problems in Star Trek Into Darkness, is in negotiations to star in James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z. The film, based on David Grann’s bestseller, will see Cumberbatch as Percy Fawcett, an explorer who headed into the Brazilian rainforest on a mapping expedition in 1952. Suffering from malaria, Fawcett returned claiming to have found The Lost City Of Z and was roundly mocked by his peers. Accompanied by his son and only one other person Fawcett returned to the rainforest to prove his point and was never seen again.
Brad Pitt had been planning on starring in the project as well as producing for his Plan B production company – clearly they have a thing for books with a big old ‘Z’ in them after World War Z – but now seems happy to let Cumberbatch head into the woods. Earlier this week it was rumoured that Cumberbatch had been cast in the new Star Wars but those rumours were quickly dismissed. What we do know is that he will be seen in 12 Years A Slave, August: Osage County, The Fifth Estate in which he’ll play WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange before we get to hear his dulcet tones as Smaug in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug. Source – Deadline
