Tom Hiddleston Cast in Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak

Recently, Benedict  Cumberbatch dropped out of Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak. While many were sad to hear that Cumberbatch wouldn't be teaming up with del Toro, he's being replaced by an actor that should get many people excited.

Legendary Pictures has announced that Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers) has been cast in place of Cumberbatch. He joins Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam, and Jim Beaver in the upcoming horror movie.

Mia Wasikowska (Stoker) will be playing the role of  "Edith Cushing who discovers that her charming new husband is not who he appears to be." Tom Hiddleston and Jessica Chastain have been cast as siblings from an aristocratic family, while Charlie Hunnam rounds out the main cast. We don’t have confirmation on Hunnam’s character, but we’re assuming he’ll be playing Edith Cushing’s husband.

Crimson Peak was originally written by del Toro and Matthew Robbins (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark), and Lucinda Coxon was brought in for a rewrite. We still don’t know too much about the story, but we do know that del Toro is aiming for a movie that can sit next to some of the great classic horror films. Here’s what he had to say about his influences:

“To me that is Robert Wise’s The Haunting, which was a big movie, beautifully directed, with the house built magnificently. And the other grand daddy is Jack Clayton’s The Innocents. I’ve always tried to make big-sized horror movies like the ones I grew up watching… Films like The Omen, The Exorcist and The Shining, the latter of which is another Mount Everest of the haunted house movie. I loved the way that Kubrick had such control over the big sets he used, and how much big production value there was. I think people are getting used to horror subjects done as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted this to feel like a throwback.”