Benedict Cumberbatch to Star in Adaptation of Ian McEwan's "The Child in Time" #book2movie

image via e. Literi where Cumberbatch fans can find a whole page of Benedict’s quotes

News of another film that, like this year’s devastating Manchester by the Sea, dives deep into a dark place where parents grapples with grief and unspeakable loss. Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to executive produce and star in the adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 1987 Whitbread Prize winning The Child in Time. British telly writer Stephen Butchard (Vincent, The Last Kingdom) wrote the 90 minute adaptation. With so many series in his pocket, I’m a bit surprised the BBC and Masterpiece aren’t doing it as a series.

About the book

Stephen Lewis, a successful writer of children’s books, is confronted with the unthinkable: his only child, three-year-old Kate, is snatched from him in a supermarket. In one horrifying moment that replays itself over the years that follow, Stephen realizes his daughter is gone. With extraordinary tenderness and insight, Booker Prize–winning author Ian McEwan takes us into the dark territory of a marriage devastated by the loss of a child. Kate’s absence sets Stephen and his wife, Julie, on diverging paths as they each struggle with a grief that only seems to intensify with the passage of time. Eloquent and passionate, the novel concludes in a triumphant scene of love and hope that gives full rein to the author's remarkable gifts. The winner of the Whitbread Prize, The Child in Time is an astonishing novel by one of the finest writers of his generation.

Benedict Cumberbatch, a huge reader—probably what makes him so sexy to so many women—will play Lewis in the BBCOne/Masterpiece Theatre production:

“I read the novel years ago and it stayed with me — profound, beautiful and very moving. Only Ian McEwan could write about loss with such telling honesty. We’re very excited to have Stephen Butchard’s subtle and brilliant adaptation, and in Julian Farino we have an extraordinary director who delivers emotional truth. I’m so proud The Child In Time will be the first drama produced by SunnyMarch TV.”

Obviously this is tough material, the kind of stuff that scares some people away, bringing you face to face with the possibility of that kind of loss in your own life. While it may be devastating, I appreciate the cathartic, therapeutic benefits of art like this while my husband still hasn’t seen Mystic River because it deals with a father’s loss of a murdered child. 

Which camp are you in?