Can you guys stop complaining about the Benedict Cumberbatch coverage? It’s really simple – this is a gossip site and we’re gossiping about a celebrity that SOME of us want to discuss. If you don’t like that celebrity and you don’t want to talk about him, why even click on the post? I’m at a loss. Anyway, at this point it’s not even like I’m actively trying to cover Cumberbatch so much. There are just so many new stories about him and his projects and his maybe dating life and stuff. We cover gossip. There’s a lot of gossip about Cumberbatch these days. So if you don’t want to read about it… don’t. *waits patiently*

Okay, now it should only be people who actively want to gossip and discuss The Batch. First up, the first teaser for Sherlock Season 3 has been released and I swear to the almighty Mycroft Holmes, it gave me goosebumps. It’s just that amazing theme music and his shadow in the doorway and Watson with an unfortunate mustache (Sherlock is going to have something to say about that mustache) and the CUMBY CURLS and and and…!!!!!!!

*squeals, passes out*

Benedict is also featured in Entertainment Weekly’s “New Hollywood” issue, the one with my girl Mindy Kaling on the cover. Here’s Benedict’s piece:

He is Hollywood’s most wanted man. Benedict Cumberbatch, the brainy British actor with the deep baritone, is best known as the acid-tongued genius of Baker Street on the BBC series Sherlock (more on that in a second). But this summer he raised his profile with his smoldering version of Khan, the most infamous villain in the Starfleet universe, in Star Trek Into Darkness. Now, the 37-year-old is about to have the busiest fall of his career, playing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate (Oct. 18), a plantation owner in 12 Years a Slave (Oct. 18), the titular dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Dec. 13), and Meryl Streep’s nephew in August: Osage County (Dec. 25). It’s for those reasons—and more—that he was a perfect fit for our New Hollywood package.

With The Fifth Estate, Cumberbatch travels into strange new territory: the modern world as we know it. “It’s the first role I’ve had where I am portraying a real person as they go through events that have occurred since I’ve been alive,” he says. “And that does change the dynamic [of playing the part]. With Assange, it’s a story that is going on in the world beyond our movie, which is new for me and extraordinary, quite honestly. There’s a different energy there.”

As for a more familiar energy, Cumberbatch is currently shooting the third season of Sherlock. “It’s great,” he says, calling from the London set. “The second series was weird. Because it was such a phenomenal success, we were a bit distanced from the routine and the inhabiting of those characters. This season, straight into it, comfortable. And [the characters all] immediately fit under our skins. Really hard work because it wouldn’t be a good show unless we were trying to evolve it and set ourselves new challenges and standards. But I love it. I’m very fond of playing him. You’re in for a treat this series.” Undoubtedly. So could he give us a tease of what goodies await us?

“Ummmmm…no,” Cumberbatch says. “Nothing that’s worth my liver or whatever part of my body they’d remove if I said anything.”

Even when he’s off-duty, Mr. Holmes has a way of following him around. Jonny Lee Miller, star of CBS’ Elementary, was Cumberbatch’s co-star in Danny Boyle’s two-man Frankenstein play, which ran on the London stage in 2011. And Cumberbatch also once lived less than two blocks from Robert Downey Jr.’s Venice Beach office and was tempted to drop in as a surprise. “I’m not sure anyone needs that much Sherlock in one room,” he says. “I also don’t know if I can find his office. I’m not a detective.”

Big on Japan: ”I love to travel, and with Trek we all went to Tokyo. That was my first time — and it was a hell of a helter skelter way to be introduced to it, to be sure — but I was blown away. We had this hotel and the view was as if someone had just projected against this backdrop the Ridley Scott director’s cut version of Blade Runner with white lights and blinking red lights. It’s shockingly stunning and modern and it has that really wonderful aspect of modernity right up against ancient tradition.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

As for The Fifth Estate and what I’m sure will be a well-executed Oscar campaign (at least for Cumberbatch, I’m assuming), The Hollywood Reporter had a really interesting process piece on how WikiLeaks is trying to “sabotage” the promotion of TFE with Julian Assange making some very pointed statements about the film and how it is “a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff.” When the first trailer was released, WikiLeaks Twitter tweeted: “Don’t be fooled. It implies that we gave Iran nukes and killed 2,000.” But Disney (who will be marketing this film very carefully) “isn’t concerned,” says THR. They’re hoping that because Assange is still very much in the news (he’s been making statements on behalf of Edward Snowden, who is probably being “debriefed” by FSB as we speak), that will end up helping The Fifth Estate. One insider told THR, “Not everyone knows about WikiLeaks, so this is good for us.”

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.