Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy Set to Costar in Louis Wain Biopic

The ’Batch is back—the Doctor Strange leading man has announced he will star alongside Claire Foy in a forthcoming Louis Wain biopic from BAFTA-nominated director Will Sharpe titled, well, The Nine Lives of Louis Wain.

Though Wain’s story isn’t taught much in primary school art classes, the famed English artist best known for his whimsical and psychedelic paintings of anthropomorphized cats had quite the life to document.

Wain controversially wed his sister’s governess at the age of 23, and shortly after their marriage, his wife fell ill to breast cancer. Wain began etching their cat as a way to keep his wife’s spirits up after the diagnosis, selling the illustrations to journals and children’s books. His wife succumbed to cancer three years into their marriage, and Wain’s mental health began to severely deteriorate shortly thereafter.

The artist is said to have suffered from schizophrenia or an acute form of Asperger’s syndrome, and struggled with anxiety and depression, conditions that psychiatrists claim can be discerned in his abstract work. The artist also endured financial difficulty throughout his life and frequently sold his drawings without reproduction rights to offset the hardship.