Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch is heading to a different network to star in a new series called Melrose.
Sherlock series 4 wrapped up in the beginning of the year, and coming off of his title role in Doctor Strange, Cumberbatch has some time to pick up a new project — which is exactly what he just did.
According to Deadline, Showtime has ordered a five-part miniseries in Melrose, which Cumberbatch will not only star in, but produce as well.
The series is “based on the Patrick Melrose series of semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn,” Deadline reports. “Melrose skewers the upper class as it tracks the protagonist’s harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.”
Cumberbatch’s character is being described as “an aristocratic and outrageously funny playboy who struggles to overcome the damage inflicted by a horribly abusive father and the mother who tacitly condoned the behavior.”
Though the roles are by no means identical, both Sherlock and Strange have that arrogant air about them that would lend itself to a role like this. Despite the dashes of humor in both projects, however, it sounds like Melrose will allow the actor to stretch his comedy chops a bit more.
Don’t expect this show to last long, though. It’s being billed as a limited series, with each episode following each one of the five novels. The whole series takes place over a couple days, but there will presumably be flashbacks, as we’ll being seeing the South of France in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s, and Britain in the early 2000s.
It’s basically going to be a five hour long movie, and it sounds fantastic.