After a busy 2013 appearing in every movie you saw, including “12 Years a Slave,” “August: Osage County,” “The Fifth Estate,” “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and “Star Trek Into Darkness,” things aren’t slowing down for Benedict Cumberbatch in 2014. He’s already got “The Imitation Game” on the way (first look here), and this spring he’ll get climbing on a new movie.
The actor has boarded “Mongol” director Sergei Bodrov‘s “Blood Mountain.” Penned by Jonathan W. Stokes and touched up by John Romano (“The Lincoln Lawyer“), the film isn’t an adaptation of the album by Mastodon, but rather, “follows a private military contractor whose special forces team is ambushed and killed during a covert raid, forcing him to personally escort one of the world’s most wanted terrorists over hostile terrain in order to bring him to justice. With a bounty at stake and insurgents and rival mercenaries hunting them, the two find themselves facing not only their enemies, but each other in their fight for survival.” No word yet on who his co-star will be but it sounds like a gritty little thriller. Production starts in April. [Variety]
In other news, Catalina Sandino Moreno (“Maria Full Of Grace,” “The Bridge“) has joined the already excellent cast of Jessica Chastain, Oscar Isaac and Albert Brooks in J.C. Chandor‘s “A Most Violent Year.” The story follows “the owners of a heating oil business whose ambition collides with the criminal element in New York in 1981, when the city saw a surge in violent crime.” Also coming aboard is the usually great David Oyelowo. Production starts soon with the film expected to be release in time for the awards season later this year. [The Wrap/THR]
Lastly, Gabriel Byrne has joined the sprawling cast of Juliette Binoche, James Brolin, Oscar Nunez, Antonio Banderas, Kate Del Castillo, Lou Diamond Phillips, Mario Casas, Juan Pablo Raba, Tenoch Huerta, Jacob Vargas, Marco Trevino and Alejandro Goic for the Chilean miner disaster drama “The 33.” He’ll play engineer Andre Sougarret, the man who masterminded the rescue, in the Patricia Riggen-directed movie. [Deadline]
