Barbican Theatre's Benedict Cumberbatch-Led HAMLET to Screen in Theaters Next Year?

According to the Daily Mail, director Lyndsey Turner and producer Sonia Friedman are in talks with National Theatre Live to film the Barbican Theatre's Summer 2015 production of HAMLET, starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the title role. The production would screen in theaters next year.

"I felt very strongly that as wide an audience as possible should have access to it," Cumberbatch told the Mail.

Read the original report here.

William Shakespeare's HAMLET will begin performances at the Barbican Theatre on 5 August 2015, with opening night on 25 August at 7pm. The twelve-week limited run will conclude on 31 October 2015. Set design is by Es Devlin. HAMLET will be produced by Sonia Friedman Productions.

In HAMLET, as a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to revenge his father's death but paralysed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

Benedict Cumberbatch is an international multi-award winning theatre, television and film actor. His recent stage credits, both for the National Theatre, are After the Dance and alternating both the creature and Dr Frankenstein, in Danny Boyle's production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for which he won the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Best Actor awards. Also, a critically-acclaimed television actor, he is currently best known for playing the title role in the BBC's Sherlock. His film work includes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County and the role of Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy, with the final instalment to be released later this year. In October Cumberbatch will be seen playing Alan Turning in The Imitation Game which opens The BFI London Film Festival.

Lyndsey Turner's directing credits include Fathers and Sons and Philadelphia, Here I Come! for the Donmar Warehouse, Machinal for the Roundabout Theatre, Chimerica at the Almeida and in the West End, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End, There Is A War and Edgar and Annabel for the National Theatre, Aliceand The Way Of The World for Sheffield Theatres and Our Private Life, Contractions, A Miracle for the Royal Court.

For more about the production, visit www.hamlet-barbican.com.