Guillermo del Toro's ghost story Crimson Peak has found a replacement after Benedict Cumberbatch left. Tom Hiddleston is confirmed by Legendary to fill in the vacant spot left by the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy actor, AceShowbiz said.

Production is expected to start in January 2014. Hiddleston will join Zero Dark Thirty (2012) actress Jessica Chastain, Alice in Wonderland star Mia Wasikowska and Sons of Anarchy actor Charlie Hunnam on the cast ensemble.

Cumberbatch was not the only actor who backed out of the new del Toro project. Emma Stone was originally signed on for the film but she departed, leading to Maps to the Stars actress Wasikowska being brought in as a replacement.

It's "very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. It will allow me to play with the conventions of the genre I know and love, and at the same time subvert the old rules," del Toro once said of his haunted house pic.

Hiddleston is known for his role as God of Mischef Loki in Marvel's movie universe. The British star has portrayed the villain in Thor and The Avengers, and will next be seen reprising the role in Thor sequel, Thor: The Dark World. His other new projects include Muppets Most Wanted.

According to Screen Rant, Crimson Peak: a ghost story set in England, will see del Toro reinvigorate the horror directing talents with which he first made his name.

Del Toro has previously cited Robert Wise’s The Haunting and Jack Clayton’s The Innocents – the two indomitable legends of the haunted house horror genre – as being strong influences when piecing together the script for Crimson Peak (which he co-wrote with regular partner Matthew Robbins and new collaborator Lucinda Coxon), and has described Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining as a “Mount Everest of the haunted house movies.” There’s no denying that with their vast and diverse spaces – from creepy corners to tiny closets, dusty attics to gloomy basements – haunted houses are a bottomless well of potential terror, which might be why the haunted house is a favorite genre subset for many a horror fan.

In a recent interview with STYD, del Toro makes it sound fairly clear that Crimson Peak will have a lot more in common with The Shining than with The Haunting or The Innocents, at least in terms of the content that’s going to earn it an R rating. Though it will be an English-language production, Del Toro says that Crimson Peak will be in large part a return to his Spanish horror roots, which include films like The Devil’s Backbone, Cronos and Pan’s Labyrinth. del Toro warns that fans who have only ever seen his English-language films would do well to prepare themselves properly for the radical change in direction that he’s taking with his new haunted house film.