back to article Leo DiCaprio slated to play Turing in biopic

Warner Bros has outbid other film studios to secure the rights to a script on the life of Alan Turing. The Time Warner studio paid an unspecified seven-figure sum for the rights to The Imitation Game, by first-time screenwriter Graham Moore. Moore's screenplay is an adoption of Alan Turing: The Enigma, a biography of the …

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  1. GettinSadda
    Mushroom

    Apparently in this new film Turing meets an attractive young woman while he is at MIT working on cracking the Enigma codes. After they marry the two go on to live a long and fulfilling life, probably with Turing single-handedly foiling a number of unlikely soviet schemes!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sadly you're probably right

      I can't imagine the Middle America focus groups accepting a gay man might have helped end World War II. And an English accent will only confuse them if he's neither a member of the royal family nor a super villain.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      and then

      single-handledly flies the plane with the nuclear bomb to drop on Hitler's bunker

    3. Steve Evans

      Don't forget...

      I hope they remember to include Hitler's master code inventor, Abdul.

    4. Periquet dels Palots
      Facepalm

      Single handedly? My, no! She will be an expert in martial arts, and will fly through the air in bullet time cutting the heads of three adversaries in one go with her sword while she kicks the balls of three SS men three times her weight. All while our our absent minded hero stares oblivious into the nothingness, mentally computing some tough algorithm that will lead them to the end of level boss.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The hollywood version

    Will have Alan Turing a grad student at <insert some US Ivy League University here>, a Football Jock and a chick magnet.

    Just remember what they did to the Enigma story with U571

  3. Just Thinking

    For accuracy

    Try Radio 4's Hut 33.

    OK, maybe not that accurate but at least it is funny.

  4. Naughtyhorse
    Thumb Down

    Im sure the gfx will be stunning... all them bits and bytes whizzing about at a few kb a minute. cool effects giving the impresssion of 100's of hours sat at a desk scribbling away with a pencil. possibly a cgi pipe being smoked...

    but given:

    a> merkins won the war

    b> merkin scientists are the best (y'all heard of enistein and fermi right?)

    c> a merkin invented the 'puter

    d> merkins hate faggots

    I suspect the facts in this story will be mangled beyond recognition.

    could be worse, tom cruise could be in it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Err...

      "Merkin"? Do you really have to? If it were any other people it wouldn't be acceptable to give them an insulting nickname.

      And as for Americans hating gays (don't use the F word) that's a gross over generalisation based on a few shouty bigots. The vast majority of all Americans I've ever met do not have a problem with people being gay.

    2. Andrew Moore

      Not 'Merkins'

      if you want to be politically correct, please use the term 'septics' instead.

  5. auburnman
    Holmes

    My favourite memory of U-571 was the little footnote at the end just before the credits rolled. It read something like "The US forces success in capturing intact the Enigma codebook marked a great Allied triumph in the war" and then in smaller font something along the lines of "The British had already done this twice and the Canadians once."

  6. Tony S
    Alien

    You forgot

    They will also show him foiling a Nazi suicide bomb attack, a high speed car chase with several explosions, with Leo handling a variety of semi automatic weapons, solving Femat's Theorem whilst waiting to tell a greatful Winston Churchill that he should pass control of the House of Commons over to the US Congress.

    Will they even try to get him to talk with a British accent? Or will they suggest that he has spent many years working in the States

  7. John Bailey

    So..

    What kind or robot will the enigma machine transform into?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Is Michael Bay directing it?

      When they finally crack the code there could be an almighty explosion which lasts 30 minutes and no one in the audience would have the remotest idea what's going on and afterwards they'd leave the cinema with tinnitus but it'd be great anyway.

  8. Disco-Legend-Zeke
    Pint

    "Tortured Genius"

    It comes with the territory.

    Haven't you noticed that stupid people are happier than you?

    Beer, getting people stupid enough to be happy since 9500 BCE.

  9. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge
    Unhappy

    I don't suppose we can complain...

    "Apparently in this new film Turing meets an attractive young woman while he is at MIT working on cracking the Enigma codes. After they marry the two go on to live a long and fulfilling life, probably with Turing single-handedly foiling a number of unlikely soviet schemes"

    ....when the film reveals that Turing did not really die, but his suicide was a faked cover to bring him over to the US for a big operation against the Commies. After all, we did the same thing to Mallory in 'The guns of Navarone'....

  10. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Meh

    On a positive note ...

    casting suggestions in no particular order...

    Gary Oldman

    Benedict Cumberbach

    Hugh Laurie

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Cumberbatch ...

      In fact would be ideal for Turing. The other-worldliness quotient is perfect.

  11. Wommit
    Coat

    But I thought ...

    that Leonardo DiCaprio died in Titanic.

    I'm sure he did. I watched it eight times just to make sure.

    1. OrsonX

      Leo dies again

      Sadly the ending to this movie is even worse than Titanic.

      Thank goodness we now live in more enlightened times (some of us at least).

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If only we could go back in time...

    ... and make an vintage British movie set in Bletchley Park. Obviously Dirk Bogarde is Alan Turing.

  13. hugh

    Casting...

    Crispin Glover surely?

  14. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Meh

    "Hollywood has a poor record in bringing stories about the wartime exploits of Britain's cryptographers to screen."

    Why care about the personnel of a large aircraft carrier?

  15. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    The Title?

    He will hack the German's computer (passwd is HITLER) and cause it to self destruct in a large explosion then escape in a high speed chase through London in a mini to rescue the babe.

    1. bitmap animal
      Happy

      Don't be silly, they wouldn't have such an easy password, they would make it really hard to guess and go for H1TL3R obviously ;)

      1. Naughtyhorse

        while uttering the imortal line...

        'Oh noh, it's encrypted... this will take a few minutes more'

      2. Munchausen's proxy
        Pint

        Nah, it could be better

        I'm thinking big-screen terminals, with big flashing "ACCESS DENIED" while Turing hammers away faster and faster at the keyboard until he (being a genius) figures out how to hack umlauts into the mainframe or something.

        I'm pretty sure we all agree it's likely to be bad.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          3D

          I've always thought that you really want to make codebreaking exciting, you just film the formulae in 3D.

      3. JohnG

        Funny you should say that... When selecting their random six letter startup message key each day, some Enigma operators would regularly choose H I T L E R, thus making the code breakers' work considerably easier.

    2. Graham Marsden
      Facepalm

      Ironically...

      ... one of the things that helped Bletchley Park crack Enigma was when the Germans used three letter codes to initialise the rotor positions and often used HIT which was followed by, of course, LER for the encrypted message setting!

  16. Graham Bartlett

    @Dodgy Geezer

    Oh my god, the Guns of Navarone film. Now there was a turkey. Take the best character-driven thriller ever written, put Gregory Peck in the lead role, and how could you possibly go wrong? Answer: by comprehensively butchering the plot until there's almost nothing left of what made the book great. Oh, and by casting David Niven, whose lack of acting ability makes Orlando Bloom look like Laurence Olivier.

  17. Neil Hoskins
    Meh

    'Enigma', the film...

    ... was a film of the novel, and was therefore a work of fiction. If you watched it thinking it's an inaccurate documentary, then you're a plonker.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    all this Turing stuff ....

    is ignoring Tommy Flowers who was instrumental in building the code cracking computers at Bletchley Park.

    He spent his own cash doing it , and just about got repaid by a not that appreciative government post war.

    When is he going to get due recognition and a film ?

    Turing has a ring road named after him around Manchester.

    What about naming the M25 or North Circular after Tommy his-most-excellent-engineer Flowers ? Or maybe stick a monument on the 4th pedestal at Trafalgar Square. ( for Flowers that is ) , it would sure beat the rubbish they've had on it so far.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      a ring road, is that all?

      one might call it a mere token ring... road.

      igmc

    2. Alan Firminger

      Er, no

      Tommy Flowers provided Colossus to crack Fish.

      Polish bombes were used on Enigma, helped by Turing's analysis.

      And Turing didn't work on Fish.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        He also built...

        ERNIE, and the first transistorised pulse-width modulated and time-multiplexed telephone exchanges. He is one of the unsung founders of the modern world

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        err yes ... :)

        I thought Tommy Flowers Colossi computers were installed at Bletchley ? Guessing he did a fair amount of his work at Dollis Hill.

        The point still stands , when are we going to have a film about Tommy Flowers ? When is the M25 going to be named Tommy Flowers way ? Mind you Mr Flowers machine worked and were much better than what preceded, the M25 has been shagged and under specified since the day it was opened, so maybe naming the M25 after him wouldn't be so complementary.

        1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

          Tommy Flowers didn't write about the Decision Problem though.

        2. J.G.Harston Silver badge

          Tommy Flowers

          There was a short thing on BBC2 recently, I think it was one of those James May things.

    3. JohnG

      Engineers are not really regarded as professionals in the UK - which is probably why nobody cares about Tommy Flowers and why I have been working on Germany for the last decade.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        unfortunately you are quite correct

        which is why I suppose German Cars are so good ( which is more than I can say about the average driver of said German Cars here in the UK, although in Germany from my limited experience the drivers seemed well behaved )

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Turing test

    I guess the important question is, would Leonardo DiCaprio pass the Turing test?

  20. Morphius
    Headmaster

    "The ink has already dried on Warners' script deal, but speculation on who might play Turing in a biopic has already begun, coders' mag i-programmer reports."

    I always thought the saying was "The ink has barely dried...."

  21. nichobe

    Coincidence.....

    And just recently they started revamping the exterior of The Colonnade Hotel London‎, 2 Warrington Crescent, Little Venice, London W9 1ER, UK, where he was born.

  22. LarsG

    DiCaprio....

    Has matured into a pretty good actor, I don't think the Yanks will be that interested as they already think the US of A stole a U-boat capturing the Enigma machine and invented and built the computer Colossus which in fact was built by a postal worker in bletchley, and so won the war.

    A film about a gay limey with an American accent won't break box office records and will struggle to get a release over there. The film Enigma was bad enough.

  23. Mark 65

    "Turing's wartime achievements in cracking Enigma and other German wartime ciphers failed to count in his favour after he was criminally prosecuted for being homosexual, and forced to undergo humiliating chemical castration and psychiatric treatment before he eventually committed suicide."

    Gotta love the decidedly British tall-poppy syndrome. Head's above the parapet? Lop the f*cker off.

    1. Trixr
      Facepalm

      Uh, outright vicious homophobia is not the same as "tall poppy syndrome", nor was it reserved for the English in that era. Heard of the McCarthy witch hunts in the US?

      1. Mark 65
        Facepalm

        Uh, and would he have been so harshly dealt with if he wasn't so prominently in the public eye? I doubt it.

  24. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    I can't help wondering if...

    Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon' might not make a more, um, palatable film?

    I mean, if you're going to bugger around with reality, you may as well do it competently.

  25. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Hut33 - the movie

    That would be worth watching:

    Christopher Ecclestone as Archie

    David Mitchell as Gordon

    Benedict Cumberbatch as Charles

    Milla Jovovich as minka

    1. Nights_are_Long

      I have been listing to Hut 33 for the last week or so and I must say as a film it would work with that cast.

      I now have a urge to listen to Millia Jovocih do the "Ring Ring Wacky Wack" bit.

      David Mitchell would be a great Gordon, given his angry logic he would do the Luck sceen very well.

      I don't see Chris Eclestone as Archie though, the guy who played him on the radio would be a good choice.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When I was at school (some time ago) it was strongly hinted at

    that Turing was murdered rather than killing himself. By whom,

    who knows...

    The whole sorry episode made/makes me ashamed to be an

    Englishman.

  27. Toastan Buttar
    Pint

    Breaking the Code

    Saw Derek Jacobi playing Turing live on stage in the early '90s. Absolutely captivating. He played Alan at various stages of his life, including as a boy, and somehow managed to pull it off. Minimal sets, no effects to speak of and an abstract electronic soundtrack simply linking scenes. Real acting (by all the cast), the like of which I haven't seen since.

    "Dip the apple in the brew. Let the Sleeping Death seep through."

    Beer, cos he developed quite an appreciation of it during his time in Manchester.

  28. Fred Pilcher
    Happy

    I'm looking forward to hearing Mr Di Caprio trying to do an English accent. That should be a hoot.

  29. Nick Pettefar

    Bubble Bursting (Alan Turing in America and Message stupidity [Wikipedia])

    Alan Turing spent some quality time in America, meeting up with some of the brightest mathematics and physicists there such as Claude Shannon, Alonzo Church and von Neumann:

    "From September 1936 to July 1938 he spent most of his time at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, studying under Alonzo Church. In addition to his purely mathematical work, he studied cryptology and also built three of four stages of an electro-mechanical binary multiplier.[21] In June 1938 he obtained his PhD from Princeton; his dissertation (Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals) introduced the concept of ordinal logic and the notion of relative computing, where Turing machines are augmented with so-called oracles, allowing a study of problems that cannot be solved by a Turing machine."

    Our messaging people were just as stupid as the Germans and caused our codes to be broken too. One example:

    "The B-Dienst, created in the early 1930s, had broken the most widely used British Naval code by 1935. When War came in 1939, the B-Dienst specialists had broken into enough British Naval codes that the Germans knew the positions of all British warships. They had further successes in the early stages of the War; the British were slow to change their codes. The B-Dienst could regularly read the British and Allied Merchants Ships (BAMS) code, which proved valuable for U-Boat warfare in the early phases of the Battle of the Atlantic. In February 1942, the B-Dienst broke into the code used for communication with many of the Atlantic convoys."

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ouch

    Cabbage-head DiCaprio. Can he act yet?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      My man!

      "His high pitched voice already stood out above the general murmur of well-behaved junior executives grooming themselves for promotion within the Bell corporation. Then he was suddenly heard to say: 'No, I'm not interested in developing a powerful brain. All I'm after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.'"

      (In the Bell Labs cafeteria, New York, 1943).

      - Alan Hodges (Alan Turing: the Enigma of Intelligence, page 251).

  31. Kubla Cant
    Stop

    You're all wrong

    The film isn't about Enigma or Bletchley Park.

    It's going to be called "Computable Numbers", and they're currently trying to cast the Entscheidungsproblem. The favourite is Anne Hathaway doing her famous Yorkshire accent.

  32. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Bubble Bursting

    One of the ironies of cryptography is that every side broke the others codes - while at the same time being convinced that their own codes were unbreakable!

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