After earning strong reviews for his turn in Showtime’s Patrick Melrose, English actor Benedict Cumberbatch is lining up a new limited series, as he’s in final negotiations to star in the intriguing thriller Eric for Netflix.
Originally announced in November 2021, Eric is a six-episode series set in New York in the ’80s, and it will find Cumberbatch playing Vincent Sullivan, the lead puppet maker and puppeteer of America’s most popular children’s show. Vincent’s life begins to unravel when his young son, Edgar, disappears. As he struggles with substance addiction and homelessness, Vincent finds that his only companion is Eric, a seven-foot-tall blue puppet, who leads him on a journey to find his son — and a way home.
This actually sounds like a pretty interesting role for Cumberbatch, and what has me really excited is that Eric hails from writer Abi Morgan, who penned both The Iron Lady and Suffragette, but perhaps more importantly, also co-wrote Shame with Steve McQueen. Morgan will also executive produce under her Little Chick banner alongside Jane Featherstone, Lucy Dyke, and Carolyn Strauss of Sister, while Lucy Forbes (The End of the F***ing World, This Is Going to Hurt) will direct the limited series.
Cumberbatch earned an Emmy nod for his turn in Patrick Melrose, and he’s also attached to star in the HBO limited series Londongrad, which is based on the true story of poisoned KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. Cumberbatch, of course, is best known for playing characters such as Doctor Strange and Sherlock Holmes, though he has also received a pair of Oscar nominations for his lead performances in The Imitation Game and The Power of the Dog. His other notable credits include 1917, Star Trek Into Darkness, Black Mass, and two of the Hobbit movies.
Cumberbatch is represented by UTA and UK agency Conway Van Gelder Grant, and Variety broke the news of his casting in Netflix’s Eric.
