Dougray Scott and Leonard DiCaprio in Turing biopic

Leonardo DiCaprio is the frontrunner to play Alan Turing in a forthcoming biopic of the British mathematics genius and codebreaker, reports Deadline. On Tuesday, Warner Bros bought a script by first-time screenwriter Graham Moore that centres on the second world war hero.

Turing was largely written out of 2001's Enigma, perhaps the best-known portrayal of the Bletchley Park codebreakers, even though he was the leading figure at Britain's wartime decryption centre. Michael Apted's film presents a character named Jericho, played by Dougray Scott, who clearly resembles the man often credited as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. However, Jericho is a heterosexual who becomes a love interest for Kate Winslet's character in the film, while Turing was a homosexual who was prosecuted by British authorities for his sexual activities after the war and forced to undergo "chemical castration" as an alternative to prison.

Moore's screenplay is titled The Imitation Game and has reportedly interested Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, though no deals have yet been struck. It has the ring of awards season about it: Hollywood has been keen to find a worthwhile successor to Tom Hooper's The King's Speech since the British historical drama struck gold at this year's Oscars, though Turing's tale has a more downbeat ending.

Turing, whose statue stands at Bletchley Park, was arrested in 1952 after police learned of his sexual relationship with a young Manchester man. He made no denial or defence during his trial and, rather than go to prison, accepted injections of oestrogen intended to neutralise his libido.

Turing's mental health is said to have taken a further turn for the worse when he was shut out of Britain's security operations – he had continued to work part-time for GCHQ, the post-war successor to Bletchley Park – due to Britain's post-war alliance with the US and concerns over cold war spying. He was found dead by his cleaner on 8 June 1954. The coroner's verdict was suicide, though Turing's mother believed he had accidentally ingested cyanide after a chemistry experiment. In 2009, Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for the way Turing was treated after the war.

Source: The Guardian