Dame Judi Dench has revealed that she will begin filming the BBC’s Richard III, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch next week.
It seems it will be a case of lights, camera, action next week for Dame Judi Dench who has confirmed that filming will commence for Richard III on Monday.
We first revealed that the Dame Judi and Benedict Cumberbatch would be working together in August for The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses and it seems that filming has been given a green light.
The 79-year-old actress spoke to British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph at an art exhibition about her relationship with Benedict Cumberbatch – the SHERLOCK HOLMES star and revealed that the project for the BBC Two show will be quite big and will take approximately six months to film:
“He is a true gentleman and a thoroughly good actor, which helps. We start on Monday and it’s a huge project, six months in filming.”
Dame Judi is not fazed by working alongside one of the most talked about actors around at the moment, as she has known Cumberbatch since he was a child and is more than happy to praise his acting skills:
“I knew him when he was a little boy at prep school before he went on to Harrow. His mother, Wanda Ventham, was at the Royal Central School of Drama a year ahead of me.”
Benedict managed to get Dame Judi on board for the adaptation of Richard III by inviting her to join the cast during a question-and-answer session at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts in Wales back in June, where the actress took to the stage with director Richard Eyre to discuss her work in William Shakespeare’s plays throughout her career. As the questions were opened up to the audience members to participate in, unbeknown to The Bond star, there was somebody in the crowd who had a question based along the lines of Shakespeare… Benedict Cumberbatch.
With microphone in hand, the British actor made his proposition: “Would you like to be in Richard III with me?” to which she replied, “Yeah.”
We can’t imagine many people saying no Mr. Cumberbatch!
Dominic Cooke is set to direct all three of the films, alongside Ben Power who has adapted the plays for the screen and Rupert Ryle-Hodges will produce.
The three filmed adaptations – Henry VI (in 2 parts) and Richard III – are co-produced by Neal Street Productions with Carnival Films / NBCUniversal and Thirteen.Â
