2021 has turned out to be an extremely busy time for Benedict Cumberbatch. The Oscar-nominated actor has already starred in two movies this year—legal drama The Mauritanian and Cold War thriller The Courier—and he’s still got three more to come before the year is out. First up is The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, a period biopic that promises to be a sweet-natured, poignant watch. At least, that’s going by this new trailer for it that’s just arrived.
Cumberbatch stars in the title role of Louis Wain, an eccentric Victorian artist most known for his paintings of anthropomorphic cats. He’s joined by The Crown‘s Claire Foy as Emily Richardson, the governess to Louis’ several younger sisters, whom his meager earnings go toward caring for. There are definitely shades of the actor’s previous “outcast genius” roles—such as Alan Turing and Sherlock Holmes—in his performance as Wain, so this promises to be a must-see for fans of Cumberbatch.
Or fans of many an A-list actor, as it happens. Louis Wain’s terrific cast sees Cumberbatch and Foy joined by the likes of fellow The Crown veteran Olivia Colman, Toby Jones (Captain America), Andrea Riseborough (Black Mirror) and, as this trailer reveals, Taika Waititi and Nick Cave will also be turning up in the movie. Will Sharpe—who previously starred opposite Benny C in an episode of Sherlock—directs.
As for those other Cumber-films we’ve got coming our way, awards-hopeful The Power of the Dog enters theaters in early November before streaming on Netflix from Dec. 1. Then Doctor Strange returns to the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home, landing on Dec. 17. And remember, Benedict Cumberbatch is getting his own Marvel sequel in the form of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness just a few months later in May 2022.
But before all that, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain has a limited theatrical release in the U.S. from Oct. 22 before dropping on Amazon Prime on Nov. 5.