Official: National Theatre Live to Bring HAMLET with Benedict Cumberbatch to Cinemas This Fall

Sonia Friedman Productions and National Theatre Live have announced an international broadcast of Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) in the title role in Lyndsey Turner's production of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, produced by Sonia Friedman Productions and presented by the Barbican, to cinemas internationally on Thursday, October 15, 2015. Tickets for the Hamlet NT LIVE will go on sale on March 16, 2015. Dates will vary at venues internationally and encore screenings will follow. Details can be found at www.ntlive.com.

Designed by Es Devlin with video design by Luke Halls, Hamlet will play a 12-week run at the Barbican Theatre from August 5, 2015 to October 31, 2015, with an opening night on August 25. Further casting and details for this production will be announced at a later date.

As a country arms itself for war, a family tears itself apart. Forced to revenge his father's death but paralyzed by the task ahead, Hamlet rages against the impossibility of his predicament, threatening both his sanity and the security of the state.

Benedict Cumberbatch is an international multi-award winning theatre, television and film actor. His recent stage credits, both for the National Theatre, are After the Dance and alternating both the creature and Dr Frankenstein, in Danny Boyle's production of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for which he won the Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Best Actor awards. Also, a critically-acclaimed television actor, he is currently best known for playing the title role in the BBC's Sherlock. His film work includes Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Star Trek into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave, The Fifth Estate, August: Osage County and the role of Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy. Cumberbatch was recently seen on screen playing Alan Turing in The Imitation Game which opened The 2014 BFI London Film Festival.

Lyndsey Turner's directing credits include Fathers and Sons and Philadelphia, Here I Come! for the Donmar Warehouse, Machinal for the Roundabout Theatre, Chimerica at the Almeida and in the West End, Posh for the Royal Court and in the West End, There Is A War and Edgar and Annabel for the National Theatre, Alice and The Way Of The World for Sheffield Theatres and Our Private Life, Contractions, A Miracle for the Royal Court. Turner was recently appointed as an Associate Director for the National Theatre where she will direct Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in April.

Now celebrating its 6th year broadcasting live performances to cinema screens internationally, National Theatre Live has now been experienced by over 4 million people worldwide. The first season began in June 2009 with the acclaimed production of Phédre starring Helen Mirren. In addition to the record-breaking broadcast of The Audience starring Helen Mirren as The Queen (winner of two 2013 Olivier Awards, including the Best Actress award for Mirren), recent broadcasts have included the Manchester International Festival production of Macbeth with Kenneth Branagh in the title role, Nicholas Hytner's acclaimed production of Othello with Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear, the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus with Tom Hiddleston, in the title role, the Young Vic's production of A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson and Skylight from the West End with Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan. For more information, visit www.NTLive.com.