Benedict Cumberbatch on POM Movie 

With so many different roles, I decided to make a little tribute to the many voices of Benedict:

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Benedict Cumberbatch on playing a wolf in ‘Penguins of Madagascar’

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10 Best Moments from Benedict Cumberbatch’s Comic-Con Debut

No, that wasn’t a tremor you felt (July 24), Southern California, although its impact seemed like a seismic event. Despite his sizable fanbase amongst attendees,

Benedict Cumberbatch had never himself graced San Diego Comic-Con. But he had his SDCC unveiling on Thursday as part of Dreamworks’ panel for their animated release

The Penguins of Madagascar, in which the Emmy-nominated Sherlock star voices a James Bond-like wolf named Classified who comes to the assistance of four hapless penguins. He shared the stage with host Craig Ferguson, Penguins directors Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, Madagascar co-creator and voice actor Tom McGrath, and a certain Oscar-nominated character actor by the name of John Malkovich. And he brought the house down in Comic-Con’s hallowed Hall H. Here were the highlights:

1. Cumberbatch came on to the stage, looking dapper as ever, to some of the loudest screams I’ve certainly heard in my years of covering the Con:

2. And then he sat down, flashed a grin, and said to the audience, “You exist?”

3. Craig Ferguson asks, “You’ve been known to do some acting involving your entire body. Do you enjoy the animation experience?” To which Benedict responds, “I enjoy using my body, yes.” Cue squeals. Cheeky lad.

4. When asked about his preparation for the lupine part, he joked, “It was sheer hell. I worked in Yellowstone Park as a wolf for a while. I was accepted into the band quite quickly. It got a bit hairy—no pun intended—when I became the Alpha male. Then after two months, I realized that two of the other wolves were Christian Bale and Daniel Day-Lewis.”

5. There were numerous fun interactions between Cumberbatch and co-star Malkovich, who plays an octopus villain in

Penguins. As each actor recorded his voice work separately, the pair had only met the day before the panel. And Cumberbatch’s first question to Malkovich was, “So, what was it like to play an evil octopus?”

6. On what attracted him to the part of Classified: “The whole kind of Bond pastiche. This guy who’s got all of the professionalism, he’s got the tools, he’s got the team, and this kind of slick operation, and yet it only goes skin-deep. He’s got a nice vulnerability to him.”

7. Fittingly for the guy who voices Smaug, Cumberbatch revealed the book he loved as a kid. “

The Hobbit, actually. That was the first book my dad ever read to me.” In terms of TV he grew up on, he said, “I was a kid of the ’80s, so The A-Team, Werewolf, Manimal,Knight Rider, and then,

8. Craig Ferguson repeatedly warned, “If one person asks a Sherlock question, Comic-Con will be cancelled.” But a query slipped through when an audience member asked if Benedict would return to San Diego to support Sherlock in 2015. “Possibly, possibly,” he said. “I’d love to. But it’s timing.”

9. The superhero he’d most like to play? Well, after making a joke about playing “Nurse Normal,” an allusion to rumors that he’s been cast as Doctor Strange, Cumberbatch replied, “Batman, I guess, yeah?” Affleck must be quaking in his boots.

10. And then there were these images from the press room, where Cumberbatch met up with a web-footed bird friend:

So if those items aren’t enough to show why Cumberbatch is so beloved, perhaps you should take a look at the latest episode of our YouTube series, in which we reached out to the Cumbercollective for their feedback:

Posted in Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, The Penguins of Madagascar

Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies, The Penguins of Madagascar

During his first trip to Comic-Con in July, Benedict Cumberbatch stopped to chat about his many brainy characters, from the detective he plays on the BBC’s “Sherlock” and the World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, whom he portrays in the upcoming movie “The Imitation Game,” to Hamlet and an animated wolf.

You’re here for “Penguins of Madagascar,” an animated movie in which you voice a wolf who looks like he’s the brains of the operation. Have I got it just about right?

Kind of. He’s the leader, the alpha wolf of the pack, so to speak, and does things in a polar opposite way, pun intended, to the penguins.

I noticed you’re often playing really smart guys — Sherlock, Julian Assange, Alan Turing in this movie coming up, the famous codebreaker, and I wonder, do you have a go-to, ‘I’m a genius thinking really hard’ …

Definitely. [Cumberbatch furrows his brow and rests his chin in his hand]

No, it changes. It’s about the character. I’ve been very, very fortunate that there’s something going on behind my eyes so that it looks like I’m … encompassing the brilliance of their minds and ability to concentrate. But you know I have a very superficial, skin-thin understanding of the science. … It’s just about finding the humanity in all of that. Brilliant people have private moments of self-doubt and things which we could all relate to, but they also have these extraordinary moments of discovery or pioneering brilliance that pushes the envelope in how we view the world. I try not to pull faces — if I do, it has to be something with the character.

Darn, so you’re not really just thinking about what you’re having for lunch?

Yeah, exactly — “Why did I eat that cheeseburger? I should have stuck to the salad.” Actors often have that kind of a feeling, especially on stage when you’re struggling through the weirdness of your day and you’re doing the play for the umpteenth time in a long run, that’s very often something that happens: Your mind drifts and you think, “I forgot to buy the cheese in the supermarket!” You have to be careful of those mundanities creeping in because they can play havoc with your concentration.

Speaking of the stage, you’re going to be playing Hamlet in London next year. What does that particular role mean to you?

A lot. It’s something that’s been in my life for a long time. I was offered it at school and turned it down to do my “A” levels and try and get some decent grades. … I’m of an age now where I think it’s now or never ,and I’ve found the right director … this brilliant female director called Lindsey Turner, who’s just a phenomenon. I think she’s the greatest director of her generation, I’ll be that bold, and she’s a good friend and great collaborator. We’ve been talking about it for over a year already, and we don’t even start rehearsals until next June.

Most actors, [Hamlet] appeals to them initially because it feels like an everyman part, which it is, to an extent, you have to bring a lot of yourself to it. … The other appeal is the amount of direct communication you have with your audience. There’s such a large portion of it where you become very intimate. You should care about him a lot, but he should make you laugh as well as feel things.

He has, as a lot of Shakespeare’s characters do, wonderful insights into human nature and certain problems with the human condition, whether it’s depression or anxiety, or the idea of not being able to do something or being inactive, being powerless and how to treat that with humor, self-laceration, anger and action and then this incredible journey to a point where he’s just calm, where there’s this very Buddhist, “let it be” quality to an acceptance really of fate.

Like Hamlet, Sherlock is a role many actors have played. What do you think it is about that character that has resonated for so many different generations?

Well, he’s the original. He’s the blueprint for all detectives. The ability to analyze a situation and come to a conclusion, this incredible mental agility he has through hard work and application, is something that’s also humanly obtainable. He’s not superhuman, there’s no trickery to it. Some of the plot points, some of the deductions stretch credulity a little bit, but it’s something if you worked hard enough at you could actually do yourself.

In our version, in the 21st century, he has to think and work at the speed of multimedia and modern forensic science. Being an original and always a modern man in his time in the original inception of the stories, he was the first to go back casting footprints, analyzing cigarette ash into concrete evidence of someone’s guilt. All of these things, they’re not tricks, they’re hard-learned skills and that in our version has to be ramped to another degree. And also you get to see a guy who’s just slightly on the edge of being different and he’s a hero for people who feel they are slightly different or maybe slightly on the edge of society.

Last question — you could walk the halls of Comic-Con dressed as anyone you want. No one would recognize you.

Yeah. He’s here. So why isn’t everyone wearing Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich. We’ve seen the film right? Let’s do it. Let’s Spike Jonze it. I’m up for that.

Posted in Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, Hamlet, Sherlock, The Penguins of Madagascar

Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, Hamlet, Sherlock, The Penguins of Madagascar

Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Penguins of Madagascar at Comic-Con

Posted in Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, The Penguins of Madagascar

Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, The Penguins of Madagascar

**Here are some new screencaps of the clip from Dreamworks from

Penguins of Madagascar Gets First Poster & Clip!

I can’t put into words how excited I am for this flick. I have a penchant for the side-stories in these movies, whether it’s the Minions in Despicable Me, Skrat in Ice Age, or the Penguins of Madagascar, I love them all and want every one of them to have their own movie, the former two I’ll have to wait for, but the Penguins, they’re getting their own movie, if you haven’t already heard. To hype the release some more, Twentieth Century Fox has released a new clip and the first poster for the movie!

Those dastardly bunch of penguins are back and this time, they’re getting up to no good in their own spy thriller. Featuring Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private, the flightless quartet are brought into the services of the North Wind a super secret animal task force dedicated to helping animals who can’t help themselves. Headed by a wolf named Classified, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, the team must prevent Dr. Octavius Brine from taking over the world.

Penguins of Madagascar is set to land in cinemas on December 5 and will star the voices of Director Tom McGrath, Chris Miller, John DiMaggio, Christopher Knights, Benedict Cumberbatch, and John Malkovich. Here’s the first official poster for the movie, and above you can see the first clip entitled, “North Wind Headqarters.”

Benedict Cumberbatch enjoyed putting on a James Bond voice for his new movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Penguins of Madagascar character is very James Bond like, but also “chaotic and useless”.

The 38-year-old actor voices high-ranking animal CIA agent pooch known as Classified in the upcoming animated movie, a spin-off from the popular Madagascar franchise. His alter ego’s job for organisation ‘North Wind’ is to protect the penguins and help them stop villain Dr. Octavius Brine from taking over the world.

Benedict was thrilled to offer his vocals for the role and channelled his British roots for the part.

“I kept it English, kept it near to my voice and I hope a lot more pomposity than I know I have in my waking hours and non-working hours. But [Classified is] very professional, he’s in control of it,” he explained to British TV show Lorraine. “He’s got a wonderful kit and knows how to seduce and control and plan – he’s all the things that Bond should be but he’s also incredibly frustrated, chaotic, useless and in desperate need of help from penguins… The penguins from the first two films are just winning characters and it’s great to have them front and centre.”

There was a certain 007 star Benedict was influenced while voicing the dog – star of The Living Daylights and License to Kill, Timothy Dalton.

“A bit of Timothy Dalton in the voice, I recognise it, which I didn’t intentionally do but I just heard a little bit of ‘Get into the car’, serious Bond,” Benedict mused. “But there’s no hmmm Roger Moore, there’s no Daniel [Craig] and there’s no (puts on Scottish accent) Sean Connery.”

Benedict was speaking from Comic-Con in San Diego, where he attended this weekend for the first time ever. Also in attendance at the event was Cate Blanchett, who spoke about reprising her role as elf Galadriel in The Hobbit franchise following the success of The Lord of the Rings.

“So much has happened to us all, personally and professionally, since the first time round and then to step back on set, in a way you never thought,” she smiled. “I never, never thought I’d get a proper chance to play that character again. The same wig, slightly more aerodynamic ears, but the same character relationships.”

Benedict Interview With Loraine For The Penguins Of Madagascar

Benedict Cumberbatch meets giant penguin at 2014 Comic Con

Benedict Cumberbatch on Smaug and playing a Bond-like wolf in ‘Penguins of Madagascar’

Benedict Cumberbatch talks Sherlock, ‘Penguins’ at Comic-Con 2014

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Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Comic Con, Sherlock, The Penguins of Madagascar

confirmed: Benedict Cumberbatch is coming to Comic-Con on Thursday for DreamWorks Animation's PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR.—

Benedict Cumberbatch will make his first trip to San Diego Comic-Con to promote DreamWorks Animation’s feature “The Penguins of Madagascar,” although he may also stick around for Warner Bros.’ “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” and support Peter Jackson, who is scheduled to present the final installment of his trilogy.

In addition to Cumberbatch, who plays Agent Classified, the DWA panel for “Penguins” will also feature John Malkovich, Tom McGrath and directors Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell. Fox will release the toon on Nov. 26.

The 90-minute DreamWorks Animation panel will take place in the convention center’s Hall H on Thursday, starting at 11:30 a.m. WB’s presentation takes place Saturday morning.

The presentation will also promote the animated feature “Home,” out March 27, which features music by Rihanna and is helmed by Tim Johnson.

While “Sherlock” has been promoted at Comic-Con in the past, Cumberbatch nor co-star Martin Freeman were on hand to discuss the series with fans. Cumberbatch was nominated for an Emmy in the outstanding lead actor in a miniseries of movie category for “Sherlock” on Thursday, while Freeman nabbed a nom for “Fargo.”

He doesn’t quite look like a superstar, but talent, unconventional features, and the power of the Internet have made him into one.

—directly translated, it means “beautiful ugly,” but as a concept it embodies the intersection between attractiveness and unconventionality that makes us relish imperfection. 

 is Sarah Jessica Parker and Benicio del Toro and Jessica Paré. It’s why Solange is visually more intriguing than Beyoncé, and why Meat Loaf, however improbably, was a sex symbol for much of the 1980s.

Sofia Coppola is often cited as the female embodiment of 

, but as it relates to men, there’s no more obvious example in contemporary culture than Benedict Cumberbatch. In bleached-blonde, Botox-browed Hollywood, he’s the antithesis of everything we’re supposed to find attractive.

Let’s start with his name, which sounds positively Hogwartsian. He’s purposefully Benedict, rather than the more casual Ben, which brings to mind 16 distinctly unglamorous popes, an order of monks, and eggs smothered with hollandaise. Then there’s the Cumberbatch part, which conjures up images of either a professor of potions or the antiquated silk sash men sometimes wear with tuxedos. What’s in a name? Michael Caine was once Maurice Joseph Micklewhite and Cary Grant was born Archibald Leach: In the flimsy, illusive world of film, names matter.

Or perhaps they don’t, anymore, and perhaps 37-year-old Cumberbatch is the physical manifestation of a paradigm shift in a culture that seeks out slender, sensitive Edward Cullen over sweaty Magic Mike and prefers Sherlock Holmes to Superman. Perhaps this is why Cumberbatch is everywhere. This week, he’s in the news because he’s voicing a “super-duper smooth wolf” in DreamWorks’ upcoming 

. He’s also playing Hamlet at the London Barbican. He’s playing Richard III, possibly opposite Judi Dench. He’sreading radio news scripts from D-Day on BBC Radio Four (in what seems to be a craven but successful attempt to get millennials interested in history) He’s photo-bombing U2 at the Oscars. He’s reading letters written by Kurt Vonnegut and Iggy Pop at the literary Hay Festival. He’s one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He’s officiating at same-sex weddings. He’s crowd-funding short films made by a production company he set up, SunnyMarch Ltd. He’s starring as Alan Turing in 

. He’s replacing Guy Pearce as Whitey Bulger’s brother in 

. He’s on BuzzFeed surrounded by photoshopped pictures of kittens. And, yes, he’s also doing  a fourth season of 

, the cult British series that made detached sociopaths dreamy and Cumberbatch a household name.

It’s not beyond the realm of possibility to conclude that 37-year-old Cumberbatch is the biggest star in the world right now, riding an improbably perfect storm of talent, timing, sensitivity, virality, and our postmodern rejection of conformist standards of beauty—at least insofar as they relate to men. With actresses, we seem to crave homogeneity (as a fun experiment, look at a lineup featuring Kate Mara, Ashley Greene, Anna Kendrick, and Isla Fisher and see if you can say with absolute certainty which one is which). With actors, it’s more complicated. There are the schlubby, paunchy Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill types, sure, but there’s also brooding John Hawkes and goofy Michael Sheen and the quirkily off-kilter former ballerina Ansel Elgort.

In bleached-blonde, Botox-browed Hollywood, he’s the antithesis of everything we’re supposed to find attractive.

Aesthetically, Cumberbatch’s appeal is almost impossible to define. He has naturally auburn hair, which he dyes for different roles, but which brings to mind Byronic literary heroes as diverse as Mr. Darcy and Christian Grey. His haughty pallor bears comparison with the vampiric charms of Robert Pattinson in 

, and with the young Mark Twain. His features are aristocratic in a way that used to suggest inbreeding among the upper classes—his mouth is only vaguely defined, and his jaw is slender rather than square—while his eyes are situated disproportionately far away from each other, tilting back towards his temples in a manner that makes his angular cheekbones more apparent. Physically, he’s most frequently compared to an otter. In previous roles, he sported a ginger mustache while playing a rapist in 

, and he suffered through a hideous makeover to play the infinitely gruesome Julian Assange in 

 (not even Cumberbatch’s charms could make that movie a success).

Emotionally and intellectually, he is, quite simply, the perfect male celebrity for our time. The feminist blog Jezebel refers to him as “your boyfriend Benedict Cumberbatch,” an endorsement that takes into consideration his intelligence, his chivalry (he once punched a reporter who was rude about Keira Knightley, but did so “gently”), his sense of humor, his status as a straight ally for gay rights (hence the wedding he officiated), and his Buddhist regard for humanity and all the earth’s creatures. He’s an activist and an artist who donates his drawings to charity auctions. He has concerns about the fact that his legions of fans refer to themselves as Cumberbitches or Cumberbunnies because of the potentially sexist connotations; he prefers Cumberbabes. Of course he does.

If Cumberbatch is as uncomfortable with the level of attention he’s getting as he says he is, then his ascent can be seen as a cautionary tale for other reluctant idols. In some indefinable way, Cumberbatch is a walking, talking meme. When he appeared on 

 he had to repeatedly remind Murray that he was actually an actor, not a detective named “Benedict Sherlock,” in a joke that was far too sophisticated to be targeted at preschoolers and was presumably intended for a YouTube audience. His presence is guaranteed to make anything go viral, whether it’s a literary festival, a TV miniseries, or one of the most frequently staged Shakespearian tragedies. In London, people are paying around $170 just to jump to the front of the line when tickets go on sale for his 

. Combine photos of him looking intuitive or alluring with pictures of fuzzy kittens and it’s a wonder the Internet doesn’t implode.

a character says, “There is no exquisite beauty … without some strangeness in the proportion.” Perhaps the strange and incalculable ascendancy of Cumberbatch from a man the BBC initially didn’t think was sexy enough to play Sherlock Holmes to one of the biggest stars in the world is a sign that our culture is maturing, and no longer considers classical good looks to be paramount. The 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant drew distinctions between things that are evidently beautiful because we can see they’re beautiful, and things that are sublime because they demand an intellectual response. In a Cumberbatch-centric universe, the sublime is finally triumphant.

Posted in Benedict Cumberbatch, Otter Meme, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Fifth Estate, The Imitation Game, The Lost City Of Z, The Penguins of Madagascar

Tags: Benedict Cumberbatch, Hamlet, Sherlock, Star Trek: Into Darkness, The Fifth Estate, The Imitation Game, The Lost City Of Z, The Penguins of Madagascar

**Here are some caps from the trailer of The Penguins Of Madagascar…

Benedict Cumberbatch’s newest mission: playing a good-looking and debonair secret agent.

The British actor voices Classified, head of a covert protective force of animals, in the animated espionage caper The Penguins of Madagascar (due out Nov. 26). Directed by Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, the comedy stars the quartet of flightless birds from the Madagascar movies.

“I don’t know what it’s like to be a penguin, but I do know what it’s like to be a super-duper-smooth classified agent,” says Cumberbatch.

Like many, he digs the cinematic penguins who, even though they seem cuddly, tend toward the personalities of 1950s tough guys.

Penguins gives these commandos with a penchant for trouble a new foe: the disgruntled octopus Octavius Brine (John Malkovich), who also goes by “Dave” and is on a quest to wipe out their species.

The penguins themselves think “there’s no one better to save us than us,” says executive producer Tom McGrath, who’s been voicing the leader, Skipper, since the original 2005Madagascar (which he directed with Darnell).

Along the way, Skipper and his crew — brainy Kowalski (Chris Miller), rugged Rico (John DiMaggio) and young rookie Private (Christopher Knights) — come into conflict and ultimately team with the high-tech animal organization North Wind (its motto: “No one breaks the Wind”).

Classified’s group includes the seal Short Fuse (Ken Jeong), an explosives expert; snow owl Eva (Annet Mahendru of The Americans), an intelligence analyst with a Russian accent who’s the object of Kowalski’s affections; and hulking Norwegian bear Corporal (Peter Stormare), who constantly wants to embrace his four new bird friends.

“While North Wind uses all this slick gadgetry, the penguins rely on grit, spit and duct tape,” says McGrath.

Cumberbatch says “there’s a bit of Benedict” in Classified’s voice. He was like a lot of boys who grew up with James Bond and “have fantasies of secret agents and being a spy or just working in some kind of covert manner to save the human — or in this case, animal — race.”

The movie plays with various spy tropes: Octavius is always annoyed by his henchmen, but even the smartest guy in the room can’t undo the mute button on the remote to his video equipment, McGrath says. “There’s a humanity underneath this guy who’s trying to be bad.”

And the opening of the movie finds the penguins trying to break into Fort Knox to steal the last remaining vending machine containing Private’s favorite snack food, 1960s-era Cheesy Dibbles, for his birthday.

Such outrageous acts by the small creatures “just tickle me,” says Cumberbatch. “They have dreams of being warriors and yet they’re these cute little black-and-white fellows who belong in the Arctic or a zoo.”

Even more heartening is that, even though they get themselves into hapless trouble, ”they are actually very needed,” he says. “My character has to swallow his pride and team up with them, so they have their hero moment. They really do come to the fore as the chief protagonists.”

John Finnemore announcing the news about Cabin Pressure’s Zurich

Benedict Cumberbatch To Appear On Collector’s Edition Cover Of ELLE’s December Issue

Steven Moffat wins for Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special