It was hard to miss Benedict Cumberbatch this year as he seemed to be everywhere, playing villains or legendary detectives, or getting lost amongst the packed ensemble of August: Osage County. Next year he takes on the role of renowned mathematician and cryptanalyst Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, and the first official image has arrived just as Turing is back in the news.
Turing was a genius in multiple fields, and is one of the men responsible for setting us on the technological path we're on today. His "Turing Test" continues to be instrumental in the field of artificial intelligence, and he helped crack the German Enigma code and cyphers during WWII, effectively changing the course of the war. But he was also a homosexual, which was illegal in the U.K. back in the 1950s, and when it was discovered he lost everything. Convicted in a court of law, he lost his ability to be employed, and then the government took away his ability to be a man. A more complete ruination of a single person I can't even think of.
Just this week Queen Elizabeth officially pardoned Turing, so like I said this image's release couldn't be more timely. Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) is directing the film which co-stars Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, and Rory Kinnear. It sounds like the focus will largely be on his code-breaking work and its impact on the war rather than Turing's personal battles, which would be a little disappointing.
