Benedict Cumberbatch to Bring Matt Haig's 'How to Stop Time' to the Small Screen

Though Benedict Cumberbatch will always be Sherlock to PBS viewers, the Oscar-nominated actor is probably best known these days for his big screen roles, from playing Dr. Stephen Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to his haunting performance in Jane Campion's probably-should-have-been-a-Best-Picture-winner The Power of the Dog. But perhaps it's his feature film stardom that has allowed him to be more selective when it comes to his television roles, taking on increasingly prestige, interesting, or simply downright weird projects, from playing Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in the forthcoming Londongrad or a troubled puppeteer in the upcoming Netflix series Eric.

His latest in-the-works role was initially slated to be a feature film: an adaptation of the bestselling novel How to Stop Time. But, thankfully, someone seems to have realized that the genre-bending 2017 novel is more suited for something with a more substantial runtime, and the project is now a six-part miniseries.

Cumberbatch is set to star as Tom Hazard, a seemingly ordinary man who suffers from an extremely rare condition called anageria, which has kept him alive for centuries. Initially born in 15th-century France, he is well over 600 years old, and his life has been full of repeated loss. To survive, he and the other men and women like him have formed a secret society to help keep one another safe from persecution and discovery. But membership in this society also comes with a strict code of behavior, and Tom is perilously close to breaking one of its most important rules: Never fall in love.