“Sherlock” and Star Trek Into Darkness star Benedict Cumberbatch is negotiating to headline an upcoming adaptation of David Grann’s The Lost City of Z that We Own the Night helmer James Gray will both write and direct, Deadline reports.

The nonfiction book, a New York Times best seller, was published in 2009 and is officially described as follows:

In 1925, Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the worlds largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyles The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilizationwhich he dubbed Zexisted. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Cumberbatch, who would play Fawcett, can be seen coming up in the WikiLeaks thriller The Fifth Estate and as the title antagonist in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. He’s also slated to play Alan Turing in Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game.

Dede Gardner, Anthony Katagas, Jeremy Kleiner and Brad Pitt will produce The Lost City of Z through Plan B.

(Photo Credit: Dan Jackman / WENN.com)