Re: Film about WW2 codebreaker Alan Turing is attacked by biographer

This is a notorious film treatment, having topped the 2011 "Black List," 
the "annual collection of the 'most-liked' unproduced screenplays of the 
year" based upon an informal survey of industry professionals. Intended 
to give a career boost to relatively unknown screenwriters, the list has 
had some phenomenal successes, including "Juno" and "The Social 
Network," so it is widely known and taken very seriously.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/risky-business/black-list-2011-top-screenplays-272332

For reasons that mystify me, Warner Brothers reportedly bought the 
rights to the treatment for seven figures intending it as a vehicle for 
Leonardo DiCaprio, who apparently did not want it. With DiCaprio out, 
Warner lost interest and it has somehow popped up as an independent 
production starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing and Keira 
Knightley as Joan Clarke.

Reading between the lines, Warner was likely unwilling to fund a major 
biographical production with a subject protagonist whose homosexuality 
was a principally defining aspect of his life and a consequently 
emphatic lack of heterosexual romance, which may have led to a 
fictionalized expansion of the role of Clarke. To put this more bluntly, 
Hollywood movies are all about appealing to the broadest possible market 
of film-goers, and the demographic appeal for what would be perceived as 
a World War II gay-interest biography of a mathematician would be 
unlikely to justify the budget (including DiCaprio's salary) that Warner 
had in mind for it.

Cumberbatch has made it almost a personal cottage industry of his own to 
play sexually eccentric and secretive characters, including George 
Smiley's trusted assistant Peter Guillam in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, 
Spy" (who is gay in the film but not the book), Sherlock Holmes in the 
BBC mini-series (who is either asexual or homosexual depending upon 
interpretation), and Julian Assange in the forthcoming "The Fifth 
Estate" (who has been accused of rape). With Warner and DiCaprio gone 
from the picture, I would expect the script to lose most of the bizarre 
baggage with Clarke and return to a more historically honest portrayal, 
unless there is a need to justify whatever salary they are paying Knightley.

The intrigue with Russian mole John Cairncross that is reported to be a 
fictional element of the film is absurd: I have enormous respect for 
Andrew Hodges, and if he says that it is unlikely Cairncross and Turing 
ever even met, I would take that as definitive.

-- Mike


On 2013-06-24 06:00 ET, Martin Postranecky wrote:
> 23 June 2013
>
> Film about WW2 codebreaker Alan Turing is attacked by biographer for
> exaggerating love affair with woman because he was gay and says Keira
> Knightley is 'too glamorous'
>
> - Turing played a key role in breaking the German Enigma code during
>    WWII
> - He is credited with saving thousands of lives during the conflict
> - An American funded film is soon to be filmed about the gay codebreaker
> - Will star Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing and Keira Knightley as
>    girlfriend
> - But it has been slated by his autobiographer, who has called it
>    ludicrous
>
> By Amanda Williams
>
> A film about homosexual wartime codebreaker and father of modern computing
> Alan Turing has been attacked by his biographer.
>
> Enigma hero Turing played a key role in breaking the German Enigma code
> during the Second World War while working at Bletchley Park. He is
> credited with saving thousands of lives during the conflict.
>
> But a new American funded film about his life has been lambasted for
> exaggerating a love affair with a woman, played by Keira Knightley, and
> making a fictional connection to a notorious spy. Turing was a well known
> homosexual.
>
> "The Imitation Game" is based on a biography by Andrew Hodges, an Oxford
> maths academic.
>
> It is set to star Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing and fellow Bletchley
> codebreaker Joan Clarke will be played by Keira Knightley as Turing's
> girlfriend - despite the fact that he was gay.
>
> The Sunday Times reports that Mr Hodges has been sent a script of the film
> and is 'alarmed by the inaccuracies it'.
>
> He said : 'They have built up the relationship with Joan much more than it
> actually was.'
>
> He said while the couple had been 'briefly engaged', it was said that he
> liked her because he could talk to her as if she were really another man'
> and there had never been much physical contact.
>
> He said the casting of Keira Knightley in the role, did not 'strike him as
> right.'..../snip/
>
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2346828/Film-WW2-codebreaker-Alan-Turing-attacked-biographer-exaggerating-love-affair-woman-gay-says-Keira-Knightley-glamorous.html
>
> http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Arts/article1277723.ece?CMP=OTH-gnws-standard-2013_06_22
>
> http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/keira-knightley-may-costar-as-complicated-lov
>
> http://www.turingfilm.com/