Benedict Cumberbatch in the First Released Still of ‘The Imitation Game’

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch was pretty much ubiquitous throughout the 2013 calendar with much ballyhooed roles in films as varied as Star Trek Into Darkness, The Fifth Estate and a trio of films currently in release – 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (it’s but his voice that appears in the later, but it’s instantly distinctive) – and his healthy employment appears to continue throughout the new year.

One of the most intriguing films Cumberbatch has in the works may just be The Imitation Game, a British period biographical drama set to come out sometime in 2014.  The film tells the true life story of mathematician Alan Turing.  Turing, a pioneer of computer science, helped crack the Enigma code during World War II and developed the Turing Machine, which has been considered a model for the all purpose computer.  We may all owe a debt to his work for our collective online-obsessed modern lifestyle.  Adding heft to the story was the very real and sad circumstances regarding Turing’s personal life.  He was a gay man, for which he was prosecuted and convicted in 1952, and was given a choice between imprisonment and castration. He committed suicide at the age of 41.  In May of 2012 a bill was set in motion to posthumously pardon Turing, which was signed into effect on December 24, 2013 and immediately taken into effect.

The above first image was tweeted out by the film’s official Twitter in celebration of Turing’s pardon.

In honor of today’s Royal Pardon, please find the first still released from the upcoming film, The Imitation Game. pic.twitter.com/qdJFHSAYj2

— The Imitation Game (@tigmovie) December 24, 2013

The Imitation Game was directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) from a script by Graham Moore.  Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Mark Strong co-star.  The film is slated for release some time in 2014.