First Look At Benedict Cumberbatch As Richard III In The Hollow Crown

And Sherlock's Andrew Scott will be King Louis in Henry VI Part 2

Now is the winter of our Benedict content, made glorious summer by this new look at Sir Cumber of Batch playing Richard III as part of the new cycle of the Beeb’s The Hollow Crown. For this second set of Shakespeare adaptations – subtitled The Wars Of The Roses – we’ll see Richard’s tale plus the two parts of Henry VI.

And in addition to Cumberbatch, the cast for this new set of films features a typically rich assortment of talent including Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo, Hugh Bonneville, Sally Hawkins, Keeley Hawes and Tom Sturridge, Michael Gambon, Philip Glenister, Andrew Scott, Jason Watkins, Samuel West, Stanley Townsend, Adrian Dunbar, Geoffrey Streatfield, Ben Daniels, Ben Miles, Sam Troughton, Stuart McQuarrie, Anton Lesser, Kyle Soller, Phoebe Fox, James Fleet and Lucy Robinson. That’s quite a gathering of Equity, right there. And yes, it means that with Scott’s inclusion, Moriarty is also getting in on the Shakespeare action, albeit in Henry VI Part 2.

“After the critical and popular success of the first part of The Hollow Crown – and seven years after we very first suggested the idea to the BBC – I am delighted to announce the start of principal photography on the second half of this magnificent epic story,” says executive producer Sam Mendes in a statement. “Yet again we have assembled an amazing cast - under the direction of the hugely talented Dominic Cooke. I'm very excited indeed to see them all bring the rest of this astonishing story to life.” There’s no announced airdate for the new stories yet, but given that they’ve only just started filming, we’ll have to wait a while.

from Empire News