If you live in Germany or are able to watch German televion, the first episode of series 2 “A Scandal in Belgravia” airs tomorrow, May 17th on ARD at 8.15pm.
The remaining two episodes are set to air on May 27 and May 28, both at 9.45pm.
Sherlock’s executive producer Steven Moffat has promised fans that the climax to the glossy detective drama’s third series will leave them “just as frustrated as ever they were.”
Speaking at the Bafta Craft awards held last weekend, the writer admitted that he and co-writer Mark Gatiss had already penned an ingenious conclusion to the eagerly-awaited third season of the show.
Continue reading “Steven Moffat promises a puzzling climax to Sherlock’s third series” »
The production, which was a massive success during its run at the National Theatre in the UK, will play on US screens in June.
The good news keeps coming for Benedict Cumberbatch fans.
The British actor, whose second series of mystery show Sherlock debuted on PBS on Sunday and was just voted The Sun’s Sexiest Man (thanks in part to his army of fans on Tumblr), will have his award-winning turn in the stage production of Frankenstein shown in movie theaters in the United States in June. The play, directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle, ran for a little over two months at the National Theater in London last year.
Fathom Events is presenting a taped recording of the show in hundreds of theaters across the country on June 6 and 7; the production was shot twice, as Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller traded off playing Dr. Frankenstein and his monster. One night, Cumberbatch’s turn as the monster will be shown, while Miller’s take on it will play the other.
The show was a smash hit in the UK, earning Cumberbatch and Miller a shared Olivier Award for Best Actor. Along with Sherlock, Cumberbatch will star in the upcoming Star Trek sequel and will again play two roles in The Hobbit. Boyle is directing the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics, while, ironically, Miller will also play Sherlock Holmes in the TV show Elementary. The two, it seems, love sharing roles.
Considered handsome in his own, unconventional way, the actor received a major boost from his large fan base on Tumblr.
The ascending star had a busy Sunday, on both sides of the Atlantic. In the United States, there was the premiere of the second season of Sherlock, the critically-acclaimed, modern-day retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery stories, in which he plays the central sleuth; and over in the UK, he was voted The Sun’s Sexiest Man by the tabloid’s readers. Or, to be more precise about it all, readers of Tumblr blogs.
Cumberbatch is a hit online, the subject of much adoration on social media sites and fan fiction. And so when The Sun began its very scientific poll, the fans of the spindly, intellectual Brit launched into action, flooding the vote and encouraging their Cumber-obsessives to do so, as well. The result? Cumberbatch took home the award in a walk, finishing with 7115 votes, more than doubling the tally of the second place finisher, David Beckham.
The victory is even more impressive when the rest of the list further explored: coming in fourth, fifth and sixth were Harry Styles, Zayn Malik and Niall Horanthree, three of the singers in One Direction, while Ryan Gosling came in seventh place.
Fans rejoiced with the news; “This result was brought to you by Tumblr,” one user wrote (with the message receiving a mass of re-blogs), while another exclaimed, “YAY GUYS!! WE DID IT!!! We’ve got the power! He even got double the votes than David Beckham (2nd place) heehee! ALL THE FEELS! I LOVE THE SHERLOCK FANDOM!”
Seems like looking like an otter is the new sexy, something of which Cumberbatch is well aware. Next, he’ll test the limits of his sex symbol status by playing a villain in Star Trek sequel, as well as Smaug and the Necromancer in The Hobbit.
The literary figure Irene Adler lives up to her surname – she is the only woman ever to addle Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective Sherlock Holmes. With that sort of power, it’s no wonder the character turns up to bedazzle and bedevil Holmes in SHERLOCK, a contemporary take on the sleuth developed by writers/producers Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat for the BBC. Season Two begins nex Sunday, May 6, on PBS at 9 PM in the U.S. (Season Two previously ran on the BBC starting New Year’s Day).
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as his companion, Afghan war veteran John Watson, soared to international popularity when they starred in SHERLOCK’s 2010 first season. Lara Pulver plays the fascinating Irene, who appears in Season Two’s debut episode, “A Scandal in Belgravia.”
Pulver has a substantial stage career in her native England. She played Isabella in the recent BBC version of ROBIN HOOD and Sookie Stackhouse’s goblin fairy godmother Claudine in TRUE BLOOD. The actress is clearly delighted with SHERLOCK and has quite a few stories from the set – some of them even concerning THE HOBBIT, which features Freeman in the title role of the young Bilbo Baggins and Cumberbatch as the dragon Smaug.
Continue reading “Lara Pulver Talks the New Season of SHERLOCK” »
No, Benedict Cumberbatch is not going to tell us anything juicy about the top-secret role he’s been filming in the coming sequel to “Star Trek,” the next adventure of the starship Enterprise crew from the director J. J. Abrams.
To make up for this lack of candor, Mr. Cumberbatch, the British actor and “Sherlock” star who is the subject of a profile in this weekend’s Arts & Leisure section, will instead share the story of how he landed the mystery role via an audition he recorded for Mr. Abrams on an iPhone.
We’ll let Mr. Cumberbatch, who spoke from his temporary home in Venice, Calif., take it from here:
I got a call before Christmas Eve saying that they’re very interested in you playing the not-so-good guy in the next “Star Trek” film. Can you get yourself on tape? So I rang some friends of mine – and when I say friends, I mean the top casting directors in England who were all on holiday because we observe this little Judeo-Christian cult holiday called Christmas. Whereas, you know, some kids in this part of town, [circles his hands to indicate Los Angeles] with their Crackberrys, don’t. And the demands were coming in so fast, I was like, This is terrifying. And by the 27th, people were knocking on the door, literally, and saying I’ve got to put myself on tape.
I was down in Gloucestershire with some friends, who turned out to be useless. I won’t mention their names, they’re quite well known friends, a director and a very brilliant actress. Bless them, they were busy with his kid. I then went down to London and begged my best friend there, Adam Ackland. He’s always been there to put out the fire. And he said, “Let’s do it.” My Flip wasn’t working, I couldn’t get any kind of recording device. I said, I’m going to do it on my iPhone. It’s high quality, it’s HD. It will be fine.
And so I ended up squatting in their kitchen, at about 11 o’clock at night. I was pretty strung out, so that went into the performance. And his wife, Alice, bless her, with two children asleep – they’ve got enough on their plate without this actor in a crisis in their kitchen — and she’s balancing two chairs to get the right angle on me and desk lamps bouncing light off bits of paper, just trying desperately to make it look half-decent. Because it’s going to go into J.J. Abrams’s iPad. So we did it, and then it took a day and a half to compress it. I sent it to him, and then I got told, “J.J.’s on holiday.”
I was furious. And then I heard on the day after New Year’s Day – we had an amazing first showing for [the British season premiere of] “Sherlock,” and then he just sent me an e-mail, going, “You want to come and play?” I said, What does this mean? Are you in town, you want to go for a drink? I’m English, you’ve got to be really straight with me on this. Have I got the part?
Indeed, he did.
HOW skilled a secret keeper is Benedict Cumberbatch if he readily confesses the easiest method for extracting secrets from him?
Asked somewhat frivolously for information about one of the many coming projects he cannot talk about, Mr. Cumberbatch, the 35-year-old British actor, offered an equally facetious response.
“You could stick a knife in my thigh, and I wouldn’t tell you,” he said a few weeks ago, relaxing on the deck of the Venice, Calif., home where he was staying. But he added: “Pull the hair on my head the wrong way, and I would be on my knees begging for mercy. I have very sensitive follicles.”
Continue reading “Role to Role, From Sherlock to ‘Star Trek’” »
“I’m getting my hair dyed at the moment, at work,” British actor Benedict Cumberbatch tells Zap2it, calling in from the set of “Star Trek 2,” the second installment in director J.J. Abrams’ big-screen reboot of the science-fiction franchise.
Cumberbatch, who returns to PBS’ “Masterpiece Mystery!” on Sunday, May 6, in the second season of “Sherlock,” playing the title role in the BBC’s 21st century reboot of that venerable franchise, plays the mysterious villain in “Trek,” the plot of which has been shrouded in secrecy.
“The movie goes very well,” Cumberbatch says. “It’s very, very long hours, but it’s an incredible job. It’s phenomenal. J.J. brings it. It’s a very exciting set to be on. He’s very imaginative. He’s involved in the details, the acting and all the wonderful ideas he has for capturing stories in a fresh and imaginative way.
“Just the range of stuff I get to do in one day, it’s great. Also, what he’s asking me, it’s just wonderful. I can’t say much nicer than that. I’m basically raving about it, and I don’t have a gun pointed to my head.
“He’s a genuinely good human being, as well as being absurdly talented and popular. He’s just fantastically talented, just in payoffs and thrills and chills along the way.”
Cumberbatch shot “Sherlock” in Wales, but for “Star Trek,” he’s in Los Angeles, sometimes on a proper movie lot, with all the amenities that go with it — such as catered lunches.
Asked if he’s enjoying it all, Cumberbatch says, “Yeah, you betcha. It’s great. I’ve gone up two suit sizes. The character I’m playing, he’s strong, I can say that much. I’ve changed my physique a bit, so that requires eating like a foie gras goose, well beyond your appetite, And, providing I don’t feel too ill, I then work out two hours a day with a phenomenal trainer. It’s the L.A. way.”
Cumberbatch has also gotten a chance to film in the Budweiser Brewery in the San Fernando Valley, which was used in Abrams’ first “Star Trek” movie as the engine room of the Starship Enterprise.
“It’s noisy,” he says. “it’s very, very, very mind-numbingly noisy. It’s slightly like what you’d imagine they’d be playing in your earphones if you were being tortured by some foreign operative. It’s not particularly pleasant.
“And yet, it’s stunning, and it films beautifully. It’s incredible. It’s a working, functioning factory, and production doesn’t shut down for us being there. It’s fantastic, really beautiful.”
But, he didn’t get to bring home a case of cold Bud.
“No, I didn’t,” says Cumberbatch. “I’d like to. No, I didn’t. There was a nice little tap on one of the big, old vats, and I thought, ‘I wonder if I should take a taste.’”
Benedict has been nominated as Best Lead Actor.
Martin has been nominated as Best Supporting Actor.
Andrew has almost been nominated as Best Support Actor.
The Awards in 2012 will take place on Sunday 27 May at Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in London.
Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat has dismissed reports that Benedict Cumberbatch is to play the villainous Master on the sci-fi series.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com at the Royal Television Society awards, Moffat said: “People really do sit in rooms and make that stuff up. Look at the filming schedules for Doctor Who and Sherlock – those two shows tend to shoot at the same time. We’d have a problem and there’s only so much I can arrange.”
