After starring in big-budget blockbusters Star Trek Into Darkness and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug last year, Benedict Cumberbatch, is going the indie route, signing on for the low budget thriller Blood Mountain.

The actor will portray a military contractor whose special forces team is ambushed and slaughtered during a raid. With no backup, he is forced to personally escort a dangerous terrorist through hostile territory to bring him to justice. While facing rebel insurgents and mercenaries trying to collect the bounty on the terrorist's head, they both find themselves fighting much more than themselves to survive.

Sergey Bodrov (Seventh Son, Mongol) is directing from a screenplay by Jonathan W. Stokes, with revisions provided by John Romano. Lawrence Bender, Nicola Horlick and James Gibb are producing, with domestic and international sales to kick off at the European Film Market in Berlin. Production is scheduled to begin this April in Monaco.

Benedict Cumberbatch's other recent credits include August: Osage County, 12 Years a Slave and The Fifth Estate. He will next be seen in The Imitation Game.