Benedict Cumberbatch in Talks to Join 'August: Osage County' (Exclusive)

Benedict Cumberbatch, the Emmy-nominated actor who stars on the BBC’s Sherlock, is in negotiations to join the cast of August: Osage County, the Weinstein Co.’s adaptation of the Pulitzer- and Tony-winning play.

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The high-profile project counts Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts among its stars and George Clooney among its producers.

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John Wells is directing the movie, which revolves around the women of a family whose lives have splintered in many directions until a crisis bring them back to their childhood home and to the dysfunctional woman (Streep) who raised them.

Cumberbatch will act as the sensitive son of Streep’s sister, Mattie Fay Aiken (Margo Martindale). She castigates and belittles the man, who believes his father is Charlie Aiken (Chris Cooper), but the truth is he’s the product of an affair.

The movie is eyeing a late-September start in Oklahoma.

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Cumberbatch caught the town’s attention with his portrayal of Holmes and was rewarded for his work in the series’ second season with an Emmy nomination. Sherlock -- which airs on PBS in the U.S. -- led him to, among others things, being cast as the villain in the upcoming Star Trek sequel.

He just wrapped Twelve Years a Slave with Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender and will be both voicing the dragon Smaug and doing motion capture work as the Necromancer in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies.

The actor, who won British theater’s Olivier Award for his work in Danny Boyle’s stage production of Frankenstein, is repped by UTA and John Grant at Conway VanGelder Grant in the U.K.