Benedict Cumberbatch cast in Guillermo del Toro's 'modern ghost story' Crimson Peak

The Sherlock actor will star alongside Emma Stone and Charlie Hunnam

Benedict Cumberbatch is to star in Guillermo del Toro’s latest film Crimson Peak.

He will appear alongside Emma Stone and Charlie Hunnam in the “modern take on a ghost story”.

Crimson Peak is the latest signing for the actor, who has had a busy schedule filming upcoming Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. He is also currently filming The Fifth Estate about the Wikileaks founder in which he plays Julian Assange.

The star revealed this week he had to eat 4,000 calories a day to bulk up for his role as agent John Harrison in Star Trek Into Darkness, due to be released in May.

But it is unknown what character Cumberbatch will play in Crimson Peak as plot details are yet to be released. Del Toro and writer Lucinda Coxon are currently rewriting a script originally penned by del Toro and Matthew Robins, according to Variety.

In an early interview about the film, del Toro said: “It’s a very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules.”