7 Nov 2014 2:51 PM PT
When it came to telling the big-screen story of Alan Turing — the World War II British mathematician who cracked the Nazi’s submarine code Enigma and was later sentenced for gross indecency for being gay — the The Imitation Game was more than just a run-of-the-mill biopic for the cast led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.
People were upset that Turing wasn’t pardoned and the actors were aware of the growing discontent (in the UK) that he wasn’t given his proper due,” said Imitation Game producer Ido Ostrowsky. “His resonance was never lost on the cast.”
Ostrowsky, along with director Morten Tyldum and producer Nora Grossman, described their uphill challenges in making the World War II drama last night during the Awardsline Screening for Imitation Game at the Sundance Sunset 5 Theater in Hollywood. Deadline Hollywood’s Dominic Patten moderated the session before the standing-room-only screening.
Ostrowsky and Grossman first sparked to the idea of Turing in 2009 while reading an article in the Telegraph in which British Prime Minister Gordon Brown publicly apologized for the treatment of Turing, who after the war was convicted of gross indecency over his gay conduct. Winston Churchill hailed Turing for making the single biggest contribution to the war effort by cracking the code, saving 14 million lives and shortening the WWII by two years.