Well, this is sort of interesting. For the past year, Tom Hardy has been signing on to new projects seemingly back-to-back. His “in development” and “pre-production” section on IMDB has been extremely loaded. So it’s no surprise when Tom has to back out of one of the films he’s signed on to. But it is interesting to see which one it is – apparently, Tom just dropped out of Doug Liman’s Everest, the true story of George Mallory’s (fatal) Everest climb. It would have been a good role for Hardy… and now the role might go to Benedict Cumberbatch?

What’s going on with the two studio-backed movies titled Everest, about two spectacularly different incidents that took place on the same hill? Well let me tell you. Both films have weathered missteps, but the filmmakers behind each say they intend to scale the mountain soon. Everest, the Doug Liman-directed film at Sony, is now bent on starting production in March, and that meant losing Tom Hardy, who was going to play George Mallory, the famous British mountaineer who rallied a nation with his attempts to conquer Everest. Scheduling didn’t work with Hardy.

The front-runner to replace Hardy right now is Benedict Cumberbatch, but other actors in the mix to play Mallory and Australian rival George Finch include Joel Kinnaman, James McAvoy, Tom Hiddleston, Henry Cavill, Luke Evans, Dan Stevens, Matthew Goode, and Jim Sturgess.

I’ve seen press speculation that Cumberbatch may have lost his luster because the Julian Assange pic The Fifth Estate failed at the box office, but that seems harsh. None of the current batch of emerging stars means much of anything at the box office, so the question becomes, is Cumberbatch an actor who elevates a film with his presence? The answer is a resounding yes, and he has Mallory’s regal bearing. The film is being produced by Jennifer Klein along with Liman and his Hypnotic partner Dave Bartis. Sheldon Turner wrote the script about Mallory, who disappeared on his third attempt in 1924, at age 37. He was last seen 600 feet from the top, and many think he made it before perishing on the way back down. His body stayed up there until 1999.

[From Deadline]

First of all, are we now living in a world where Benedict Cumberbatch is a suitable and logical replacement for Tom Hardy? Don’t get me wrong, I love both men, I’m attracted to both men, I would nail both men to the wall… but they are VERY different. You can see a photo of George Mallory here – neither Benedict nor Tom really looks like Mallory, but if you made me choose, I’d say that Benedict probably looks more like Mallory. But really, this sounds more like a role for Tom Hiddleston, I think? But Hiddles is up for George Finch, an Aussie? That doesn’t make much sense to me. What if Everest ends up being Cumberbatch versus Hiddles?!

Apparently there’s another Everest film in the works at Universal too but that one has run into some big budget concerns. This other version is another true story, this time about the 1996 climbing disaster in which eight climbers died. The actors assembled on that one: Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, Jake Gyllenhaal and Jason Clarke. The director wanted to start filming next month, but now that might not happen.

Photos courtesy of WENN.