In the movie version of Max Porter’s well-known book Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Grief the Thing with Feathers, Benedict Cumberbatch plays a grieving widower with two boys.

Dylan Southern’s movie version of the book will focus on Cumberbatch’s character as he loses his sense of what’s real and what’s not when a strange presence with feathers named “Crow” comes into his life.

Cumberbatch had something to say about the movie version. He said, “Having been a huge fan of Max Porter’s extraordinary book and Enda Walsh’s stage adaptation, I was skeptical about a film adaptation. But the experience of reading Dylan Southern’s adaptation rekindled the cinematic memory of reading this most visceral tale of a family consumed by grief.”

Author Porter also praised Southern’s version: “I love Dylan Southern’s adaptation of Grief is the Thing With Feathers. Dylan understands how this story is just as much about domesticity, awkward humor, and the silly, fun, and strange routines of raising children as it is about inexplicable rage and pain. In ‘Crow,’ he has created something wild, a cinematic monster unlike anything else.”

Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke of SunnyMarch are releasing their film at the Cannes Film Festival.

The best-selling book by Max Porter has been sold in 29 different countries. In a stage version, the actor Cillian Murphy played the father and the “Crow.” Murphy was called a “wonder” because of how hauntingly he played both roles.