We bring you the facts about Benedict Cumberbatch’s latest film…
THE IMITATION GAME, one of Autumn’s most highly anticipated movies, is released in Irish cinemas this week, and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turning, the man who worked to crack the German Enigma Code during WWII. We gathered together the facts about THE IMITATION GAME, for your reading pleasure…
1. Cruel Rewards
In an interview for GQ, Matthew Goode stated that the film focuses on “Turing’s life and how as a nation we celebrated him as being a hero by chemically castrating him because he was gay”.
2. Sorry seems to be the hardest word
After Alan Turing received a posthumous Royal Pardon in 2013, Benedict Cumberbatch said, in an interview with USA Today, “The only person who should be pardoning anybody is him [Turing]. Hopefully, the film will bring to the fore what an extraordinary human being he was and how appalling [his treatment by the government was]. It’s a really shameful, disgraceful part of our history”.
3. Story Untold
The screenplay for THE IMITATION GAME – written by Graham Moore and based on Andrew Hodges’ biography Alan Turning: The Enigma topped the annual Black List for best un-produced Hollywood scripts of 2011.
4. Love and Respect
Benedict Cumberbatch confessed that while filming one of the final scenes in THE IMITATION GAME, he couldn’t stop shaking and crying and had a breakdown due to his attachment and affection to his character.
5. Old Story, New Telling
THE IMITATION GAME is not the first film to focus on the Allied attempts to break the Enigma Code; Turing was portrayed by Derek Jacobi in the 1996 TV film BREAKING THE CODE, the 1002 movie ENIGMA was inspired by Turning’s work at Bletchley Park and Ed Stoppard played Turing in the 2011 Channel 4 movie CODEBREAKER. As well as this a musical work inspired by Turing’s life, written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys, entitled A MAN FROM THE FUTURE was performed at the Royal Albert Hall in July 2014.
6. Money Talks
The Weinstein Company acquired THE IMITATION GAME for a record-breaking $7 million, the highest ever amount paid for US distribution rights at the European Film Market.
7. Alternate Casting
Originally, Leonardo DiCaprio was slated to star in THE IMITATION GAME, when J Blakeson, was in the director’s chair, but backed out in 2012.
8. English Language
THE IMITATION GAME is director Morten Tyldum’s first film in the English language. Tyldum last directed JO NESBO’S HEADHUNTERS, which starred Askel Hennie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.
9. Title
The title of THE IMITATION GAME is a reference to Turing’s proposed test of the same name discussed in his seminal 1950 paper on artificial intelligence; Computing Machinery and Intelligence. The test aims to answer the question “Can machines think?”
10. When Can I See It?
THE IMITATION GAME is released in Irish cinemas on November 14th 2014
Words: Brogen Hayes