Benedict Cumberbatch got a job! Finally. I mean, he has a million projects lined up, but they keep getting pushed back – lord knows when The Lost City of Z is going to film (maybe next year), and Benedict keeps taking these random gigs (like BBC work at the Chelsea Flower Show). So, it’s interesting to see Benedict once again sign on to another war film. The project was announced at Cannes – it’s an adaptation of the 2012 book The Yellow Birds, about two soldiers in Iraq. Benedict will star with Tye Sheridan and Will Poulter. The problem? Um… Benedict is going to be playing a 21 year old. Seriously. Here’s the description of the story:

A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.

“The war tried to kill us in the spring.” So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.

In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.

With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.

[From Amazon’s description]

While I’ll buy that this is a well-written, award-winning book, and hey, maybe it would even make a good movie, I have a problem with Benedict Cumberbatch (who turns 38 in July) playing a 21 year old. Granted, Benedict can play “young” – I’ve always been convinced that Benedict played Sherlock as a dude in his mid to late 20s in the first two seasons. But can he really play 21? Or is it like Nicole Kidman trying to play a 33-year-old Grace Kelly?

Update: I swear, in the original reporting of this film announcement, they said Benedict would be playing one of the soldiers, but you guys are right, he’s playing an older soldier. My bad!

Here are some new pics of Benedict last night at the Park Theatre’s first birthday gala hosted by Sir Ian McKellen.

Vintage photos courtesy of WENN, new photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.