Benedict Cumberbatch to stop time!

Benedict Cumberbatch

No, not literally though. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to begin work on the TV adaptation of Matt Haig's best-selling novel How to Stop Time, playing the lead role of Tom Hazard. Tomas Alfredson, who directed Cumberbatch in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), is on board to helm the six-part series that is being scripted by DC Moore.

The genre-bending novel, part love story, part spy thriller, follows Tom (Cumberbatch), a seemingly ordinary man who suffers from a very rare condition called anageria, which has kept him alive for centuries. Throughout history, Tom and men and women like him, have been feared, misunderstood and persecuted.

"When I first read How to Stop Time, the potential of this story was immediately obvious," said Cumberbatch. "In his inimitable style, Matt once again explores what it is to be human and what it is to live a life - a very long one in this case - with pathos, insight, humour, drama and inspiration. I am so thrilled to be reuniting with Tomas Alfredson, who is the perfect person to capture the scale, tension and sense of humor alive in DC Moore's adaptation."

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Haig added, "Benedict Cumberbatch is the dream person to play Tom Hazard and was always who I pictured in my mind. And Tomas Alfredson is the ideal director for this story. The whole team is incredible, and it is so great to feel a story is in the best possible hands."

Interestingly, How to Stop Time has been in development at StudioCanal for some time and was initially planned as a feature film. Now, StudioCanal and Cumberbatch's SunnyMarch are producing the series, which will be shot in London and other parts of Europe next year.

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