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 That might be because his work to crack Germany's Enigma code
remained classified for decades. But also, Turing met a tragic
end following the war, taking his own life at 41 after he was
convicted for being homosexual and sentenced to chemical
castration.
The star power of British actor Benedict Cumberbatch and his new
film "The Imitation Game" could bring Turing's triumph and
tragedy to a broad audience beyond Britain, where Queen
Elizabeth recently pardoned the man who inspired the modern
computer with his "Turing machine."
"The Imitation Game" is one of the most anticipated films at the
Toronto Film Festival, where it will screen on Tuesday, and has
earned praise and early awards buzz after distributor The
Weinstein Co. gave a sneak peek at the Telluride Film Festival.
Cumberbatch, one of the most sought-after actors in film and
television, gave an immediate "yes" to playing Turing.
"There is a huge burden, an onus of responsibility," Cumberbatch
told Reuters on Sunday. "This was an extraordinary man and
sadly, bizarrely not that well known a man of his achievements."
His Turing is terribly awkward and annoying, and when forced by
the British government to work with a team of code-breakers, the
lone genius is dismissive. When he doesn't get the backing for
his machine, he sends a letter to Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, who grants him his wishes.
DOSE OF HUMOR
For director Morten Tyldum, Cumberbatch "has that incredible
screen charisma," adding "you can hold on to his face and you
feel he has a million things going on through his eyes."
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Keira Knightley plays mathematician Joan Clarke, who as the lone
woman on the team bonds with Turing and becomes his fiance, although
he later tells her he is gay.
Tyldum, a Norwegian known for his 2011 hit "Headhunters," was
drafted for the independent, modestly budgeted production after big
Hollywood studios passed on the script.
People think "it's going to be a sad story and it's not," said
Tyldum. "We wanted to make an entertaining movie. There's a lot of
humor in it and, to me, it is a movie about hope."
Cumberbatch said the humor is true to Turing, whose niece relayed
that "he was very funny in a very dry English way" and could joke
about the forced estrogen injections of his sentence.
The humor also lightens the mood for a team tasked with the
impossible, breaking through the millions of combinations to crack
the German code while the war rages.
The math and the machine's workings will go right over most
moviegoers' heads. But even the actors say they didn't get it either
despite their best efforts.
"Benedict was working on the cryptic crosswords and he got further
than I did, but we were all just faking it," said Knightley.
(Editing by Sandra Maler)
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