With deals flying left and right out the Cannes Film Festival this week, another project has found a major rising star in its grasp, as Benedict Cumberbatch has joined Tye Sheridan (The Tree of Life, Mud) and Will Poulter (We're the Millers) for an adapation of the Kevin Powers novel The Yellow Birds.
The Hollywood Reporter got the scoop on the developments brought about with the new David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) film. Also written by Lowery, this adaptation will focus on two soliders, a 21-year-old Private Bartle and a 18-year-old Private Murphy who make a promise to keep each other through the war, which becomes harder as the fight progresses.
This will be the second production from Cinelou Films, with financing on the movie being provided by Story Mining & Supply Co. The first being Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick and Britt Robertson, which just wrapped production last week.
“I never had any interest in making a war film until Jeff and Evan brought me the novel by Kevin Powers,” Lowery told THR. “And perhaps I still don't, because while Powers' story takes place during wartime, it isn't about the conflict. It is about characters who find themselves caught up in war, but who struggle to not let it define them. I fell in love with them."
Having recently finished another season of Sherlock, Cumberbatch will next be seen in The Imitation Game on November 21 and then heard as the voice of Smaug in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies on December 17.
Meanwhile, Sherdian is currently shooting Scouts vs. Zombies, and will soon be seen in Dark Places, The Forger, Last Days in the Desert and Grass Strains later this year or next year.
Additionally, Poulter will next be seen in The Maze Runner on September 19, as well as Kids in Love and Grassland in the not-too-distant future.