Guillermo Del Toro has a lot on his plate. He is watching as Pacific Rim gets good critical reviews, yet still sadly underperformed at the U.S. box office. Following that, he has his horror movie Crimson Peak to work on and then the DC Comics Justice League Dark movie called Heaven Sent after that. Then there is the news he wants to make Slaughterhouse Five with Charlie Kaufman writing it. Somewhere in there, a Guillermo Del Toro Frankenstein movie is in the works and the director wants Benedict Cumberbatch to star in it.
Del Toro worked with Cumberbatch on Crimson Peak and he said that Cumberbatch is who he wants in his Monster movie. Originally, he wanted Doug Jones to play The Monster, although Jones seems too nimble and small to do that without a lot of bulking up in prosthetics. There is no word on whether Del Toro wants Cumberbatch as the doctor or as The Monster.
Honestly, watching Benedict Cumberbatch in the magnificent Sherlock makes me think that he could be great in the role as Victor Frankenstein. He also has experience because he starred as both the doctor and The Monster in Danny Boyle’s stage play in 2011.
There is another Frankenstein movie about to come out with Aaron Eckhart, but that is based on a comic book and not the original Mary Shelley story, and it is assumed Del Toro is working from the original text for his tale.
Source: NME