Benedict Cumberbatch always has several irons in the creative fire, but a project he's been attached to since 2015 just got a major boost.

According to Deadline, Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow has signed up to direct Cumberbatch in World War II movie War Magician.

The movie about British illusionist and war hero Jasper Maskelyne has been in development since 2003, and it was reported by Variety in December 2015 that Cumberbatch had signed up to star as Maskelyne. At one point, Tom Cruise was linked to the movie, which is based on a nonfiction book by David Fisher.

Born to a family of accomplished illusionists, Maskelyne worked as a stage musician in the 1930s before joining the British Army when World War II broke out. Together with a team of fellow illusionists whom he branded "the Magic Gang," Maskelyne claimed to have used his skills to make tanks, troops, and even buildings seem to disappear — playing what he said was a key role in the Allied effort to defeat the Nazis.

However, some historians have argued that Maskelyne's part in the war effort was rather less vital than the illusionist himself claimed.

Cumberbatch previously played a World War II hero with much more solid bona fides, codebreaker Alan Turing, in the 2015 movie The Imitation Game. He earned an Oscar nomination for his performance as the pioneering mathematician and computer scientist.

Are you pleased that Benedict Cumberbatch's War Magician finally seems to be moving forward?