"Sherlock" actor Benedict Cumberbatch will play another role as a magician for the upcoming film "The War Magician."
The film will be produced by Storyscape Entertainment's Bob Cooper and Richard Saperstein alongside Tony Eldridge, Adam Ackland and Adam Selves from Cumberbatch's production company, SunnyMarch. As of now, no director has been named, according to Deadline,
"The War Magician" is based on David Fisher's fact-based book of the same name. The film will follow the story of magician Jasper Maskelyne (Benedict Cumbebatch), a world-famous magician who led a group called, The Magic Gang that helped trick the Nazis during World War II.
The group reportedly managed to conceal 150,000 men hiding in the Alexandria harbor and in the Suez Canal. Fisher claimed that Maskelyne and his cohorts won the battle of El Alamein in Egypt by using mirrors to shield machine guns, by disguising tanks as supply trucks and by creating an illusion of troop movements to Nazi spy planes overhead.
In 2014, Cumberbatch also played the role of World War II hero Alan Turing who saved lives when he was able to decrypt German intelligence codes for the British government in "The Imitation Game." Cumberbatch received numerous accolades for the film including a nomination in the Best Actor category at the Academy Awards.
Cooper told Variety that the discussions about "The War Magician" with Cumberbatch began in 2014. The earlier explained, "The Maskelyne character is so different from the one that Benedict portrayed in "The Imitation Game' in that Maskelyne was very outgoing and confident. We think this is a perfect blend of acting talent with material."
Cumberbatch is currently busy filming "Doctor Strange". His other upcoming projects also include, "Zoolander 2" and will voice tiger Shere Khan in "Jungle Book: Origins."