Benedict Cumberbatch To Play Doctor Strange

Deadline.com

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel has finally found its Doctor Strange. I’m hearing Benedict Cumberbatch is the studio’s choice for the superhero pic, and negotiations are about to begin. The news comes after talks with Joaquin Phoenix around the time of Comic-Con went south, and Marvel went back to the drawing board. With names like Jared Leto and Tom Hardy also in the mix, this is obviously a coveted role. I expect this deal to make.

Cumberbatch is in the Oscar hunt this year for The Imitation Game, the Alan Turing biopic that the Weinstein Co is priming for a November 21 release. His hot streak has included winning the Emmy for playing Sherlock Holmes on the BBC/PBS hit Sherlock.

Phoenix never had a deal, and Marvel quickly got into it with other actors to play Doctor Strange in a free-standing film.

Scott Derrickson is directing Doctor Strange and Jon Spaihts is writing the script for the pic (the first draft was penned by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer). Doctor Strange was hatched by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko during that Marvel Comics heyday of the early 1960s. He’s a neurosurgeon who becomes Sorcerer Supreme, protecting Earth against magical and mystical threats with powers of sorcery, mysticism, and martial arts. Marvel’s Kevin Feige is producing.