The BBC has released a first-look photo of Benedict Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness, Doctor Strange) in the upcoming drama The Child in Time. Three new cast members have also joined, according to Variety. Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, Brave) will play “the estranged wife of Cumberbatch’s children’s author Stephen Lewis, who struggles to find purpose in life following the disappearance of his daughter two years earlier.” Stephen Campbell Moore (The Bank Job, Season of the Witch) and Saskia Reeves (Anna, A Christmas Carol) will play Lewis’ best friends.
The 90-minute, one-off TV movie is based on Ian McEwan‘s award-winning 1987 novel and will be directed by Julian Farino. It’s the first production of Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch TV. The novel was adapted by Stephen Butchard (The Last Kingdom) and is produced by SunnyMarch TV and Pinewood Television for BBC One and co-produced by PBS’ Masterpiece.
Here is the official description for the novel The Child in Time:
“The Child in Time shows us just how quickly life can change in an instant. Stephen Lewis is a successful author of children’s books. It is a routine Saturday morning and while on a trip to the supermarket, Stephen gets distracted. Within moments, his daughter is kidnapped and his life is forever changed.
From that moment, Lewis spirals into bereavement that has effects on his relationship with his wife, his psyche, and with time itself: ‘It was a wonder there could be so much movement, so much purpose, all the time. He himself had none.’”
