DiCaprio Alan Turing Movie Tops 2011 Black List
12.12.2011
By Adam Rathe
Every year we read this thing called The Black List. It’s a film executive’s take on what are the most promising unproduced films of the year and it means very little in terms of how things actually get done, but if one of those great end-of-year lists that keeps tongues wagging.
This year, the top film on the list is screenwriter Graham Moore’s The Imitation Game, a flick about British cryptographer (and computer science legend—really, there is such a thing) Alan Turing, who during the first World War cracked the German Enigma code and later offed himself with cyanide after suffering criminal prosecution and chemical castration for being gay. Rumor has it that Leonardo DiCaprio is interested in portraying Turing.
In a strange coincidence, earlier this month a petition began circling asking the British government to officially pardon Turing. In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an official apology for the government’s treatment of Turing, saying, “While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him.”
However, his conviction still stands.
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I agree with anonymous. There was an excellent movie already done about Alan Turing called Breaking the Code, .with the great Derek Jacobi. Leo would never do him justice.
You have more useful info than the British had colnoeis pre-WWII.
Why DiCaprio to portray Alan Turing? In J.Edgar, you could hardly tell that Hoover was queer, or that queerness was the cornerstone of his character. I don't recall any scenes of Leo's Hoover wearing a dress at NY parties, or comments from socialite hostesses referring to real-life Hoover as "Mary," yet these were large details of the creep's private life.
With a mother's instinct, Turing's otherwise deferential mother was adamant in her belief that her son would not have taken his own life. One must accept that Turing, for all his achievement and because of his genius and his being a "nancy," was a nightmare of a security risk. Did he really commit suicide, or was he "offed" by Brit security apparat?
As said already, Turing was a codebreaker in WW2, not WW1, and was treated as despicably as said. An earlier film about the code-breaking work, only some years ago, didn't even mention him, but put a straight character - and, of course, a love affair - into the action.
If a Turing movie gets made it will be the second, and the first was marvelous enough. It starred gay actor Derek Jacobi. Title was "Breaking the Code."
It's hardly "a strange coincidence" either - 2012 is his centenary. http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/
This man's work to crack the enigma code was responsible for saving masses of lives and helped assure an Allied victory in WWII. Had this man been heterosexual, there would be statues of him in England and accolades written in history books. But, because he was gay, even today the government doesn't see fit to truly honor this greatest of English war heros. How sad.
Alan Turing was also the subject of a recent docudrama in the UK. An international version will be released early in 2012. http://www.turingfilm.com/
Turing carcked the Nazi Enigma code during the WW two, and not during the first one.
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