Well, here's a name we're glad to hear is back on the radar. J. Blakeson may not be instantly familiar, but he's the man who made some nice waves with his crackling debut feature, "The Disapperance of Alice Creed," a whipsmart and nervy little thriller that put him on the map (and if you haven't seen the film, it's definitely worth tracking down). But curiously, not much has been heard from him. Way back in 2010 he signed on for the Great Chicago Fire romance "Hell and Gone" with a script by Jonathan Nolan, but not much was heard since. However, one of the hottest scripts in town has now landed his name back in the trades.
Variety reports that Blakeson will take on Warner Bros.' "The Imitation Game." The Black List-topping script saw high-profile names like David Yates, Ralph Fiennes and Bryan Singer among those being sought for the gig, but instead, Blakeson will take it on. Based on the biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma," the film is a biopic of the English multi-hyphenate — mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist — whose cracking of ciphers made a massive difference in World War II and whose exploration into early computer design paved the way for the technologies we have now. However, he was a closeted homosexual who, once he came out, subjected himself to "treatment" programs and sadly took his own life in 1954. So yeah, a nice little gear change for Blakeson, and a chance for him to really stretch his wings.
At one point, Ron Howard and Leonardo DiCaprio were sniffing around to direct and star, and while the former is out, the studio still apparently wants the latter, though it remains to be seen if he'll take it on, especially since the rest of his year is pretty much booked up after just signing on for "The Wolf of Wall Street" with Martin Scorsese. Anyway, it's a nice, fresh choice for "The Imitation Game" and we hope this one gets rolling soon.
