Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak welcomes Benedict Cumberbatch

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Even while he preps PACIFIC RIM for its July release, Guillermo del Toro is already hard at work on his follow-up, the haunted house thriller CRIMSON PEAK. The film already has Emma Stone and Charlie Hunnam in its cast, and now Variety reports a new name has joined the party: Benedict Cumberbatch.

Cumberbatch will soon be seen terrorizing the Enterprise in STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS; he’s also well known for his turn as Sherlock Holmes on the BBC drama “Sherlock”. He’s portraying the dragon Smaug in the next HOBBIT film as well. Strange face aside, dude is “hot” right now.

Del Toro and Legendary Pictures will commence production on CRIMSON PEAK in February. Plot details are very thin, but here is what del Toro has said about it in the past:

It’s the turn of the century. So it’s at the turn of the century and half of the movie takes place in America, and the other half takes place in a crumbling mansion in Cumbria. And basically it’s a ghost story and gothic romance, trying to subvert the rules of the usual gothic romance. It’s very much… the first half is a love story, then that love story turns darker. And it’s at the same time a ghost story. I’m working at this moment with Lucinda Clarkson who is a really great playwright from the UK. She has the proper degree of perversity and intelligence to turn it into something interesting to watch. It’s sort of a very compelling version of the classic gothic romance, where you have the spookiness and the windswept landscape that dooms the characters, you know?”

Emma Stone