Benedict Cumberbatch to go full survival mode in Rogue Male

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

If you would’ve asked me in 2008 who would be a bigger star in 2016, Megan Fox or a dude named Benedict Cumberbatch, I would’ve said, “I’m gonna go with Fox, because that second name sounds more like a spell from HARRY POTTER.” But I would’ve clearly been wrong, because Cumberbatch is on fire right now. The man has a hit show (SHERLOCK), was nominated for an Oscar for THE INTIMIDATION GAME in 2015, and is starring in a Marvel movie (DOCTOR STRANGE) later this year. He can do anything he wants—and anything he shall do.

That anything comes in the form of producing and starring in an adaptation of the classic 1939 British novel, ROGUE MALE, according to The Hollywood Reporter. MALE is a survival story about a man who is caught trying to assassinate a dictator, is beaten, tortured and then left for dead. He must then hide out with the enemy in order to survive.

I am thrilled both as an actor and producer to be working on bringing this most treasured of English novels to the big screen.”

Reporter also mentions the script will be adapted by ASSASSIN’S CREED and MACBETH scribe Michael Lesslie.

This is not the first adaptation of the book, with the first film coming out in 1940 directed by Fritz Lang (titled MAN HUNT) and the second being a BBC movie starring Peter O’Toole in 1977.

I would like to think that thanks to the success of THE REVENANT, Cumberbatch has timed the making of this film perfectly. Great survival movies are few and far between, and are great showcases for actors, like for Leonardo Dicaprio in REVENANT or Christian Bale in RESCUE DAWN. As for Lesslie, I loved the new MACBETH, and though we have yet to see ASSASSIN’S CREED, if that movie rocks too it looks like we have a great matchup in him and Cumberbatch, which could signal the next great survival movie.

This movie has no dates of any kind attached to it, but you can see Cumberbatch in the newest Marvel movie, DOCTOR STRANGE, on November 4.