This is why I think non-documentary movie making of the lives of historical people is a fool's errand. Of course Hollywood had to sex up Turing. He's a pretty boring guy by Hollywood hero standards. There was no big breakthrough with the Enigma. Well, there was, but it was a Polish team that figured it out. Obviously, his sexuality is a dramatic point in his life, but that's not much to build a movie on. I really wonder if a decent documentary team was granted 1/10th the budget of this movie, what would their output be? Probably a decent and educational flick.
Its also a weird production. I'm not even sure who made this movie. It seems that it was produced by a near non-entity called Black Bear Pictures out of NYC, which shows only this movie and three others on their webpage. It was directed by a nobody with 3 other mediocre films under his belt and written by a novice writer. It really has "pet indie project of a wealthy person or two" written all over it. Shame really, a more mature and historically serious team probably would have punched out a better film.
There's a great Turing/Enigma/WWII film to be made, and this just isn't it. Considering its poor box office response (only 1m so far), I imagine this will be the only one, ever for Turing. I really feel his story is Spielberg or Scorsese worthy, but now alas, Turing is established as box office poison.
It is being released more widely. From Wikipedia: "The film will expand into additional markets in 12 December and will be released nationwide on Christmas day".
Its also a weird production. I'm not even sure who made this movie. It seems that it was produced by a near non-entity called Black Bear Pictures out of NYC, which shows only this movie and three others on their webpage. It was directed by a nobody with 3 other mediocre films under his belt and written by a novice writer. It really has "pet indie project of a wealthy person or two" written all over it. Shame really, a more mature and historically serious team probably would have punched out a better film.
There's a great Turing/Enigma/WWII film to be made, and this just isn't it. Considering its poor box office response (only 1m so far), I imagine this will be the only one, ever for Turing. I really feel his story is Spielberg or Scorsese worthy, but now alas, Turing is established as box office poison.