Here's The First Picture Of Benedict Cumberbatch As Alan Turing

The really-quite-busy actor will be playing Britain's tragic mathematician war hero.

Benedict just started filming The Imitation Game, in which he plays Alan Turing.

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He plays the celebrated, tragic mathematician and computer scientist Turing in the new movie from director Morten Tyldum.

Shooting began in London this week.

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The movie co-stars Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance, Allen Leech and Matthew Beard. The script is adapted by Graham Moore from Andrew Hodges' book Alan Turing: The Enigma.

Turing's work at Bletchley Park was credited with cracking the German Enigma Code, a key part of the Allies' victory in the Second World War.

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He is also widely regarded as the father of the modern computer.

He was prosecuted for gross indecency over homosexual acts.

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Turing avoided prison by agreeing to a course of 'chemical castration', subjected to the injection of female hormones. He was found dead of cyanide poisoning in 1954. The death was recorded as suicide. Prime Minister Gordon Brown made a public apology for Turing's treatment in 2009, but he has yet to be granted a pardon. If the government did that, it would set a precedent meaning they would have to pardon all the other gay men prosecuted under the same laws. Despite pressure, they have so far refused to do so.

Benedict will also soon be seen as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.

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And as the voice of Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug.

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And also as some fictional detective or other.

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