What a way to ring in the new year.
After all of last year's hullabaloo over Benicio Del Toro signing on/dropping out as the maybe-but-possibly-not-Khan villain role in JJ Abram's upcoming Star Trek sequel, it seems that the folks over at Bad Robot have finally found their man. None other than Benedict Cumberbatch will be stepping in as James T. Kirk's newest and as-yet-unnamed rival.
What's that? You've never heard of Cumberbatch? You mean you still haven't seen his brilliant turn as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's new Sherlock series? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? It's streaming on Netflix right now, and it's only three 90 minute episodes...you have no excuse! Go ahead, go start "A Study In Pink" right now. I'll be here when you get back...
RIGHT?!? The second season started airing in the U.K. on New Year's Day, but we won't get them here for months. (I'm suddenly terribly depressed.)
Cumberbatch is currently turning heads in his role as Peter Guillam in the nasty little spy flick Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, including one of the most simple yet heartbreaking scenes I watched in a film all year. Still not impressed? Well wait till next year, where you'll see him in the second part of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, doing his motion-captured best as the dragon Smaug.
To be honest, it's more than a little baffling to consider both Cumberbatch and Del Toro as being right for the same role. While they both have some serious dramatic chops, they also have extremely different energies and charms, so I can't help but wonder what sort of changes the character (whoever he may be) is undergoing as a result of the final casting...
If you can also get your hands on his performance of Frankenstein/Adam in the play he did with Jonny Lee Miller (they switched roles every night--I saw him as the monster), definitely do so. Fantastic actor and a fantastically British name.
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