‘Doctor Strange’ and ‘Sherlock’ star Benedict Cumberbatch has closed a deal to both produce and star in a new adaptation of the classic British novel ‘Rogue Male,’ says Variety.
Based on Geoffrey Household’s 1939 novel, the story follows “a hunter who attempts to assassinate a dictator but is caught, tortured and left for dead. When he escapes back home to England, he must hide out in a harsh, rural countryside while enemy agents and the police are in hot pursuit.”
Michael Lesslie is providing the screenplay, while Cumberbatch produces with Lloyd Levin, Branwen Prestwood Smith and Beatriz Levin of Black Sheep Pictures.
‘Rogue Male’ was previously adapted back in 1941, with the Fritz Lang-directed ‘Man Hunt.’ That adaption explicitly identified the unspecified dictator as Hitler. The BBC also adapted the novel for television in 1977, with the legendary Peter O’Toole in the lead role.