‘FROM THE MOMENT IT WAS PITCHED, I WAS hooked’
Benedict Cumberbatch on his new Netflix series, Eric… By
Benedict Cumberbatch is a man on a mission in the new Net ix series, Eric — and he’s got“a 7ft blue monster in tow”on his quest. The limited series lands on the streaming service on May 30. Eric is set in 1980s’ Newyork — and follows a desperate father’s search for his nine-year-old son, who disappeared one morning while on the way to school.
The six-part emotional thriller was created by Abi Morgan, and follows
Vincent — the creator of the hugely popular children’s television show Good Day Sunshine — as he struggles to cope with the loss of his son, Edgar.
Vincent is full of self-loathing and guilt around Edgar’s disappearance — and clings to the drawings his son made of a blue monster puppet, Eric.
He becomes convinced that if he can get Eric on TV, Edgar will come home to them.
But asvincent’s progressively destructive behaviour continues, he alienates his family, colleagues, and the detectives trying to help him.
It’s just Eric, a delusion of necessity, who becomes his only ally in the pursuit to bring his son home.
Benedict Cumberbatch leads the cast of the series as Vincent Anderson, with Gaby Hoffmann as Cassie Anderson, who fell for Vincent in art college — before the reality of life kicked in. While she’s a warm and loving mother to Edgar, her relationship with Vincent has its struggles.
Ivan Howe plays Edgar Anderson, who is described as an artistic nine-year-old that is deeply withdrawn from the world — and who wants to make a puppet of his own, having been inspired by the puppets on his father’s show.
Mckinley Belcher III stars as Detective Michael Ledroit, a detective who has spent twenty years in the police service — primarily in Vice, now in the missing persons division — and who works daily to hide his sexuality and life with long-term lover William.
But when his secret becomes an obstacle at work, Ledroit must choose between protecting his identity and solving a case.
The cast also includes Dan Fogler, Clarke Peters, Phoebe Nicholls, David Denman, Bamar Kane, Cecile Rochelle, Alexis Molna and Roberta Colindrez.
Filming for the series began in early 2023 in Budapest and Newyork.the release date was con rmed in March 2024, with the trailer landing earlier this month.
The footage explores the aftermath of
Edgar’s disappearance, including his parents — Cassie andvincent — at a press conference.
Cassie tells the detective looking into the case,“they’re saying that if he were alive you would have found him by now.”
However, Detective Ledroit is quick to reassure her that“you have to trust me”.
The clip also dives intovincent’s spiral and his determination to see Eric on the screen, in the hopes of bringing his son home.
He tells Cassie at one point,“i’m
working on a new puppet. If we can get (Eric) on the show, then Edgar will see him and know how much we want him to come home.”
Cassie tells him he is“going crazy”— and in the voice over,vincent adds,“he’s the monster that every child wants when they are lost and need to be found. This is Edgar’s idea, and I want to make it real.”
Writer and creator Abi Morgan previously said that the series is a“deep dive into the 1980’s Big Apple”— and tackles a number of different topics.
She said, “When I pitched the idea of a Newyork puppeteer on a quest to nd his missing son, with a 7ft blue monster in tow, it’s to Net ix’s eternal credit that they jumped on board.
“Eric is a deep dive into the 1980’s big apple, grappling with rising crime rates, internal corruption, endemic racism, a forgotten underclass and the AIDS epidemic, exposing the divisions rife between parents searching for their child, a detective battling with a system that is broken, and a lost boy who may never come home, and asks where the real monsters lie. “With puppets…lots of puppets.”
The Emmy-winner later opened up about the“dark and crazy journey into the heart of 1980s Newyork”and“the good, bad and ugly world ofvincent”.
She said,“the chance to work with Benedict and the creative team at Sister and Net ix, is irresistible. With Lucy Forbes at the directorial helm, I feel fortunate to be working at a time of such great creativity in our industry. Fingers crossed Eric will be a welcome addition.”
Lucy Forbes directs the series, and also serves as executive producer alongside Abi and Benedict. Jane Featherstone and Lucy Dyke also serve as executive producers, with Holly Pullinger producing the show.
And Jane and Lucy previously told
Net ix about the moment Abi rst pitched Eric to them — noting how it gave them “goosebumps”.
They added, “It’s an extraordinary piece of writing, inspired by Abi’s experience of Newyork in the mid-’80s, a city rotten to its core but on the cusp of change.
“She writes both a tense thriller and an intimate portrait of a delusional father searching for his child, shadowed by a monster named Eric.
“We are thrilled that ERIC will be led by the multi-award-winning Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by the brilliant Lucy Forbes.
“Eric is set to be an incredibly unique and special limited series and we are overjoyed to be collaborating once more with our long-time creative partner Abi on it.”
Earlier this year, Benedict told how he was“hooked”on the project from the moment it was pitched to him.
He told the Royal Television Society,“the minute Abi started pitching it to me, I was hooked.
“She’s an incredible storyteller and she enticed me into this complex, multifaceted and troubled character’s journey.”
The actor added that there’s more to Eric, Vincent’s seven-foot pal, than meets the initial eye.
He said,“eric is a mood-shifting entity. He can be everything from the foul-mouth buddy to the thing that can say the things we can’t.”
The director told how everything about the series had to be, at its core, rooted in naturalism. Lucy added,“everything had to be grounded in naturalism because, otherwise, when Eric turns up, it would be ridiculous — he had to belong in this environment.”
At the Next on Net ix show case earlier this year, Benedict opened up about the series — and told how Abi has built“the most extraordinarily detailed and fully realised world”.
According to Radio Times, he said,“so she’s a walking bible for what is an endless series of questions when you’re reading about a mental collapse manifesting in the way it does.
“But it is rooted in a lot of real world issues. And I think looking at parenthood, looking at marriage, looking at mental health, looking at the AIDS pandemic then, but also the ongoing crises of homophobia, racism in institutions.”
The Oscar nominee added that“there’s a lot going on and yet it does speak to our world”— and that“it’s not cramming stuff in that we’re not, sadly, all too familiar with.”
He said,“it just takes you on one of the most unusual journeys through my character’s involvement that I’ve ever read. So I was hooked.”
Benedict also opened up about working alongside the team bringing Eric to life for the show during an appearance at Next on Net ix earlier this year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
He said,“we had this fantastic operator Olly and his team creating this incredible life-size — for a monster — thing.
“It was fantastic. Those guys really know what they’re doing.
“And there was so much humour in what he was doing, which totally might not work through the whole piece, but at times, it’s going to be great. And he was very inventive.”
Benedict Cumberbatch has starred in everything from Marvel epics to sci
adventures; tales rooted in real life to mysteries brought from the page to the screen. And while he rose to fame worldwide with his role as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC’S Sherlock, he has also appeared in To The Ends of the Earth, The Last Enemy, Small Island and Hawking.
On the big screen, he has appeared in Starter for 10, Atonement, The Other Boleyn Girl, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and War Horse.
He has also played Khan in 2013’s Star
Trek Into Darkness, and voiced Smaug in The Hobbit adaptation. He also has played Dr. Stephen Strange in the MCU, most recently appearing in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Gaby Hoffmann made her big screen debut in Field of Dreams, before starring in Uncle Buck, Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then and Everyone Says I Loveyou.
In the early 2000s, she primarily focused on her work on the stage — but in 2007, she returned to the screen and since then, she has starred in Girls, Transparent, High Maintenance and Veronica Mars. Most recently, she appeared on the small screen in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
From Ozark to One Piece, Mckinley Belcher III has appeared in many beloved TV shows throughout the years.
The actor has also appeared in The Passage, The Good Lord Bird, We Built This City and Mercy Street — and on the stage, he has starred in Rear Window, The Royale, Death of a Salesman and A Solider’s Play.
IT’S TO NETFLIX’S ETERNAL CREDIT THAT THEY JUMPED ON BOARD...”