Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley star in new trailer for The Imitation Game
BENEDICT Cumberbatch looks set to put on another fantastic performance in his latest role, if the new trailer of 'The Imitation Game' is anything to go by.
The two-minute clip, which was released today, shows the 38-year-old as British mathematician Alan Turing - a pioneer of modern-day computing who is credited with cracking the German Enigma code.
The upcoming film as been dubbed as "a nail-biting race against time" and that's exactly what the trailer portrays.
It begins with Benedict being interviewed and asked what he did during the war, to which he replies: "I worked in a radio factory."
He is then asked: "What did you really do in the war?" to which he responds: "Are you paying attention?"
It the cuts to Benedict being introduced to the "greatest encryption device in history" as he vows to try and break Enigma.
However, it soon becomes clear that people are not going to make it easy for him and his team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.
The motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers had a powerful ally in Prime Minister Winston Churchill who authorized the provision of any resource they required.
The movie spans the key periods of Turing's life, from his unhappy teenage years at boarding school and the triumph of his secret wartime work on the revolutionary electro-mechanical Bombe, which was capable of breaking 3,000 Enigma-generated naval codes a day, to the tragedy of his post-war decline, following his conviction for a now outdated criminal offence.
The movie, which is directed by Morten Tyldum, also stars Keira Knightley as Turing's close friend and fellow code-breaker Joan Clarke, as well as Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Rory Kinnear and Game of Thrones actor Charles Dance.
Today, The London film festival announced that it has chosen the Alan Turing biopic to open it's 58th edition.
Released in cinemas in November, the film is expected to help elevate even further the reputation of the pioneering British scientist, who killed himself in 1954 after being prosecuted for gross indecency in 1952 after the revelation of a then-illegal gay relationship.
Prime minister Gordon Brown released a statement of apology in 2009 on behalf of the British government for the "appalling" treatment of Turing.