Benedict Cumberbatch to play Cold War spy in upcoming thriller Ironbark

Playing the famous spy Greville Wynne

Benedict Cumberbatch got lazy after his GCSEs (Getty Images)

While Benedict Cumberbatch may be busy as Doctor Strange fighting Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, the actor has found time to commit to another few movies.

The latest project the 41-year-old has been attached to is Ironbark, a Cold War thriller that will see Cumberbatch re-team with The Hollow Crown director Dominic Cooke.

The actor will play the famous spy Greville Wynne, a British intelligence officer who was recruited by MI5 shortly before World War II, later joining MI6.

Wynne secretly worked with the Soviet spy Oleg Penkovsky, relaying important information that would later bring about an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

However, their activity was soon unravelled after a KGB double agent uncovered the relationship, the pair later being arrested in Russia. While Wynne survived after the British swapped the spy for another, Penkovsky was not so lucky. Tom O'Connor wrote the script, with FilmNation producing.

Meanwhile, Cumberbatch has multiple more projects out this year, including Mowgli (as the voice of Shere Khan), The Grinch (voicing the Grinch), and titular character in the TV series Patrick Melrose.