'Patrick Melrose' News: Benedict Cumberbatch Talks Limited Series and Source Material Following Trailer Release
The trailer for "Patrick Melrose," the highly anticipated Showtime limited series based on the semi-autobiographical novels written by Edward St. Aubyn, has been released.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays the titular character, who is a "narcissistic schizoid alcoholic," as he describes himself in the trailer.
"Patrick Melrose" will follow the story of the character's troubled childhood, alcoholism and heroin addiction, and his recovery from it, his marriage and family life.
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During the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Cumberbatch could not help but marvel about the books, describing the St. Aubyn novels as "the most extraordinary prose."
The "Sherlock" star went on to describe the author as "one of the most, if not the most, extraordinary modern prose stylists working in the English language."
At its heart the subject matter took something–a world I thought I knew and turned it on its head through the perspective of this really unique character who suffers so much and goes on this extraordinary journey. From victim to survivor to champion of his circumstance in a way and via the most richly comic, scalpel-like post-mortem of a class system that is crumbling and the power related to that dissolves as the stories continue.
Gushing about his passion for the books, Cumberbatch, who will also executive produce the series along with Michael Jackson, Rachael Horovitz, Adam Ackland, and Helen Flint, said that playing Patrick Melrose checks off another wish from his bucket list, "I can now retire."
What a great canvas to play with. My only hope is to try to do justice to that work.
Each episode of "Patrick Melrose" will be based on one of the five novels in the series. Joining Cumberbatch are Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hugo Weaving, Anna Madeley, Blythe Danner, Allison Williams, Pip Torrens, Jessica Raine, Prasanna Puwanarajah, Holliday Grainger, Indira Varma and Celia Imrie.
Written for television by David Nicholls and directed by Edward Berger, "Patrick Melrose" will premiere later this year.
