Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Royal Tenenbaums

Royal Tenenbaum and his wife Etheline had three children and then they separated. All three children are extraordinary --- all geniuses. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster. Most of this was generally considered to be their father's fault. "The Royal Tenenbaums" is the story of the family's sudden, unexpected reunion one recent winter.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch’s most recent pick is The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson, a vibrant family drama following the eccentric Tenenbaum family played by the likes of Ben Stiller, Gene Hackman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Luke Wilson. Calling the film “so clever”, Cumberbatch points to Wes Anderson’s boundless creativity and appreciation for the history of world cinema as to why he adores the film so much.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Elephant Man

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his "owner" as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick (called John Merrick in the film), a severely deformed man in 19th century London.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Calling his second film compelling and “strong”, Cumberbatch goes for The Elephant Man by David Lynch, a film that follows a disfigured man rescued from mistreatment by a Victorian surgeon.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Raiders of the Lost Ark

When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Starting with Spielberg, the actor’s first choice is the action, adventure classic Raiders of the Lost Ark, starring Harrison Ford, Karen Allen and Alfred Molina, a film that Cumberbatch calls “my childhood favourite”.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Skyfall

When Bond's latest assignment goes gravely wrong and agents around the world are exposed, MI6 is attacked forcing M to relocate the agency. These events cause her authority and position to be challenged by Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows - aided only by field agent, Eve - following a trail to the mysterious Silva, whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
And Bond does London proud, too. We completely ripped off that shot from “Skyfall” of him standing on the [Ministry of Defence’s] Whitehall roof in “Sherlock”.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Withnail & I

Two out-of-work actors -- the anxious, luckless Marwood and his acerbic, alcoholic friend, Withnail -- spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday "by mistake" at the country house of Withnail's flamboyantly gay uncle, Monty, they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Which films capture London best for you? “Withnail and I” is right up there. I probably know the dialogue better than any single part I’ve played.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Captain Marvel

The story follows Carol Danvers as she becomes one of the universe’s most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races. Set in the 1990s, Captain Marvel is an all-new adventure from a previously unseen period in the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What was the last film you saw? “Captain Marvel” in Swiss Cottage. It’s a wonderful guilty pleasure watching a film in the middle of the day.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Cold War

A man and a woman meet in the ruins of post-war Poland. With vastly different backgrounds and temperaments, they are fatally mismatched and yet drawn to each other.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
It was such a sad and achingly honest story of love and how destructive and tragic it can be. It was beautifully shot and used all the power of cinema in its framing and acting without words—and when the words came, they were arresting and surprising and dangerous and unexpected.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

It's a Wonderful Life

A holiday favourite for generations... George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What movie will you always watch when on TV? Groundhog Day and It's a Wonderful life. Loads loads of them, and my mind goes completely blank when I'm asked.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Groundhog Day

A narcissistic TV weatherman, along with his attractive-but-distant producer, and his mawkish cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What movie will you always watch when on TV? Groundhog Day and It's a Wonderful life. Loads loads of them, and my mind goes completely blank when I'm asked.
Movies from Benedict Cumberbatch

Waterfront

A Nazi spy passes himself off as an optometrist in San Francisco's waterfront district. Someone robs him of his code book, and he must get it back.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Brando, I have a huge crush on Brando, in the Waterfront. It is really phenomenal, a real benchmark I think for his acting.
Books recommended by Benedict Cumberbatch
3 books

3 Recent Favorite Reads by Benedict Cumberbatch

If you are looking for decent book recommendations, here is a list of 3 books Benedict showed interest in filming based on the books and even optioned the rights for it.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
If you are looking for decent book recommendations, here is a list of 3 books Benedict showed interest in filming based on the books and even optioned the rights for it.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Tao of Physics

The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism is a 1975 book by physicist Fritjof Capra. It was a bestseller in the United States and has been published in 43 editions in 23 languages. The fourth edition in English was published in 2000.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
It put him in the mind of his sojourning teenage self, reading The Tao of Physics and searching for “the godhead within."
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

When Breath Becomes Air

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational MemoirAt the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
I read two fascinating, heartbreaking and inspiring books – Dr Marsh’s Do No Harm and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Highly recommended reads whatever your interests, as both are beautiful and profound insights into human nature as much as their chosen professions and particular experiences.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

Do No Harm

This text offers experiences of aid providers in war-torn societies to show that international assistance often reinforces divisions. It calls for a redesign of assistance programmes, and argues that opportunities exist for aid workers to support the processes by which societies disengage from war.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
I read two fascinating, heartbreaking and inspiring books – Dr Marsh’s Do No Harm and When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Highly recommended reads whatever your interests, as both are beautiful and profound insights into human nature as much as their chosen professions and particular experiences.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

Edison

From the preeminent Edison scholar . . . The definitive life of the inventor of the modern age The conventional story is so familiar and reassuring that it has come to read more like American myth than history: With only three months of formal education, a curious and hardworking young man beats the odds and becomes one of the greatest inventors in history. Not only does he invent the phonograph and the first successful electric light bulb, but he also establishes the first electrical power distribution company and lays the technological groundwork for today's movies, telephones, and sound recording industry. Through relentless tinkering, by trial and error, the story goes, Thomas Alva Edison perseveres-and changes the world. In the revelatory Edison: A Life of Invention, author Paul Israel exposes and enriches this one-dimensional view of the solitary "Wizard of Menlo Park," expertly situating his subject within a thoroughly realized portrait of a burgeoning country on the brink of massive change. The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed the birth of corporate America, and with it the newly overlapping interests of scientific, technological, and industrial cultures. Working against the common perception of Edison as a symbol of a mythic American past where persistence and individuality yielded hard-earned success, Israel demonstrates how Edison's remarkable career was actually very much a product of the inventor's fast-changing era. Edison drew widely from contemporary scientific knowledge and research, and was a crucial figure in the transformation of invention into modern corporate research and collaborative development. Informed by more than five million pages of archival documents, Paul Israel's ambitious life of Edison brightens the unexamined corners of a singularly influential and triumphant career in science. In these pages, history's most prolific inventor-he received an astounding 1,093 U.S. patents-comes to life as never before. Edison is the only biography to cover the whole of Edison's career in invention, including his early, foundational work in telegraphy. Armed with unprecedented access to Edison's workshop diaries, notebooks, and letters, Israel brings fresh insights into how the inventor's creative mind worked. And for the first time, much attention is devoted to his early family life in Ohio and Michigan-where the young Edison honed his entrepreneurial sense and eye for innovation as a newsstand owner and editor of a weekly newspaper-underscoring the inventor's later successes with new resonance and pathos. In recognizing the inventor's legacy as a pivotal figure in the second Industrial Revolution, Israel highlights Edison's creation of the industrial research laboratory, driven by intricately structured teams of researchers. The efficient lab forever changed the previously serendipitous art of workshop invention into something regular, predictable, and very attractive to corporate business leaders. Indeed, Edison's collaborative research model became the prototype upon which today's research firms and think tanks are based. The portrait of Thomas Alva Edison that emerges from this peerless biography is of a man of genius and astounding foresight. It is also a portrait rendered with incredible care, depth, and dimension, rescuing our century's godfather of invention from myth and simplification. Advance Praise for Edison: A Life of Invention "Familiar Edison stories come alive with fresh insight . . . Israel's scholarship is impeccable while his deceptively easy grace transforms a challenging story into a page turner. One hundred years of history texts have been right all along. Thomas Edison, a protean actor on the American landscape, requires our attention. Paul Israel has given us a book to satisfy that requirement for a long time to come."- John M. Staudenmaier, S.J., Editor, Technology and Culture
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
- What book are you reading at the moment? - A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and an Edison biography by Paul Israel.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

A Little Life

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEARThe New York Times • The Washington Post • The Wall Street Journal • NPR • Vanity Fair • Vogue • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Guardian • O, The Oprah Magazine • Slate • Newsday • Buzzfeed • The Economist • Newsweek • People • Kansas City Star • Shelf Awareness • Time Out New York • Huffington Post • Book Riot • Refinery29 • Bookpage • Publishers Weekly • KirkusWINNER OF THE KIRKUS PRIZEA MAN BOOKER PRIZE FINALISTA NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALISTA Little Life follows four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition—as they move to New York in search of fame and fortune. While their relationships, which are tinged by addiction, success, and pride, deepen over the decades, the men are held together by their devotion to the brilliant, enigmatic Jude, a man scarred by an unspeakable childhood trauma. A hymn to brotherly bonds and a masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Hanya Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into, and those that we make for ourselves.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What book are you reading at the moment? A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

The New York Times bestseller from the author of The Order of Time and Reality Is Not What It Seems“One of the year’s most entrancing books about science.”—The Wall Street Journal“Clear, elegant...a whirlwind tour of some of the biggest ideas in physics.”—The New York Times Book Review This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. Carlo Rovelli, a renowned theoretical physicist, is a delightfully poetic and philosophical scientific guide. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: to the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds. The book celebrates the joy of discovery. “Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world,” Rovelli writes. “And it’s breathtaking.”
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch is a huge fan of Carlo Rovelli, and professed to carrying Seven Brief Lessons on Physics around "like a small Bible"
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Hobbit

A great modern classic and the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum. “A glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible . . . All those, young or old, who love a fine adventurous tale, beautifully told, will take The Hobbit to their hearts.” – New York Times Book Review
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
My dad read the book to me and it was a bedtime treat if I had done well,” said Cumberbatch. “If I had been a good boy, I’d get two chapters as opposed to maybe one, or none if I had been really bad.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

Terence Rattigan



Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What was the last book you read, and name some of your favourite authors? Michael Darlow’s terrific biography of Terence Rattigan.
Books from Benedict Cumberbatch

An Ideal Husband

Published in 1899, An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde was first presented on stage in 1895. It is a social comedy that satirizes the hypocritical attitudes of people. Revolving around corruption and blackmail, the theme of the play is that there are no completely pure and pious people. Everyone commits mistakes and to pretend that one has not is an outright falsehood. The play became an instant success, like most of Wilde's other plays.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? To quote Oscar Wilde in An Ideal Husband: I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

Bodyguard

A troubled war veteran is assigned to protect a controversial politician who may be the target of a terror plot.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
On his favourite TV-shows this season: Bodyguard, mentioning Keeley [Hawes] and anything Fiona Shaw is in.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

Succession

The lives of the Roy family as they contemplate their future once their aging father begins to step back from the media and entertainment conglomerate they control.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Succession, which is fantastic and stars brilliant Brit Matthew Macfayden, and is old friend of mine.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

Fleabag

Fleabag is thrown roughly up against the walls of contemporary London, sleeping with anyone who dares to stand too close, squeezing money from wherever she can, rejecting anyone who tries to help her, and keeping up her bravado throughout.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Are you proud of British television at the moment? - Very. Is there any programs you've seen that you're loving, any documentaries? Well, Killing Eve, Fleabag.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

Killing Eve

A security consultant hunts for a ruthless assassin. Equally obsessed with each other, they go head to head in an epic game of cat-and-mouse.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Are you proud of British television at the moment? - Very. Is there any programs you've seen that you're loving, any documentaries? Well, Killing Eve, Fleabag.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Sopranos

The story of New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads. Those difficulties are often highlighted through his ongoing professional relationship with psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi. The show features Tony's family members and Mafia associates in prominent roles and story arcs, most notably his wife Carmela and his cousin and protégé Christopher Moltisanti.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Favourite TV programmes? The Wire, The Office, The West Wing, Mad Men and The Sopranos – the typical cliches of great American HBO box-set drama.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

Mad Men

Mad Men is set in the 1960s, initially at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on Madison Avenue in New York City, and later at the newly created firm, Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, located nearby in the Time-Life Building, at 1271 Avenue of the Americas. According to the show's pilot, the phrase "mad men" was a slang term coined in the 1950s by advertisers working on Madison Avenue to refer to themselves. The focal point of the series is Don Draper, creative director at Sterling Cooper and a founding partner at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, and the people in his life, both in and out of the office. The plot focuses on the business of the agencies as well as the personal lives of the characters, regularly depicting the changing moods and social mores of the United States in the 1960s.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
The Wire, The Office, The West Wing, Mad Men and The Sopranos – the typical cliches of great American HBO box-set drama.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

The West Wing

The West Wing provides a glimpse into presidential politics in the nation's capital as it tells the stories of the members of a fictional presidential administration. These interesting characters have humor and dedication that touches the heart while the politics that they discuss touch on everyday life.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
- Favourite TV programmes? - The Wire, The Office, The West Wing.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Office

The everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Favourite TV programmes? The Wire, The Office, The West Wing.
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

The Wire

Told from the points of view of both the Baltimore homicide and narcotics detectives and their targets, the series captures a universe in which the national war on drugs has become a permanent, self-sustaining bureaucracy, and distinctions between good and evil are routinely obliterated.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Favourite TV programmes? The Wire
TV Shows from Benedict Cumberbatch

The X Factor

The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What is your guiltiest pleasure? The X Factor.
Music recommended by Benedict Cumberbatch
3 songs

Benedict Cumberbatch's Favorite Music

Here is a list of Benedict Cumberbatch's favorite bands.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Here is a list of Benedict Cumberbatch's favorite bands.
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

All My Friends — LCD Soundsystem

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
I last downloaded Laura Marling's album I Speak Because I Can and LCD Soundsystem's song All My Friends'.
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

I Speak Because I Can

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
I last downloaded Laura Marling's album I Speak Because I Can.
Music recommended by Benedict Cumberbatch
3 songs

What Music Would Smaug Listen to? - Benedict Cumberbatch Has an Answer

Benedict Cumberbatch revealed what music Smaug the Dragon would appreciate. Check this out!
Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Benedict Cumberbatch revealed what music Smaug the Dragon would appreciate. Check this out!
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

Everything Now

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
What's your pump-up song? - Everything now by Arcade Fire.
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

A Moon Shaped Pool

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
- The best time to listen to music is in the car. - Oh, yeah. I first listened to your album A Moon Shaped Pool while driving across your home county.
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

Comfortably Numb

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
David texted me – I resisted for a while, especially because of those who had gone before – David Bowie and Kate Bush, among the legends. But then I realised I’d probably regret not standing beside him listening to him playing the body of the song, singing like a dream, more than I’d regret doing something out of my comfort zone!
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

Guns N' Roses

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
First Concert? Guns'N' Roses.
Music from Benedict Cumberbatch

Bad

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
First album? Bad by Michael Jackson.
Music recommended by Benedict Cumberbatch
6 songs

6 Favorite Songs

Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Goods from Benedict Cumberbatch

Marmite 125g. Pack of 3



Benedict Cumberbatch
Actor
Nutella or Marmite? Marmite.