Leonardo DiCaprio To Play Alan Turing? 269
mikejuk writes "2012 is the one hundredth anniversary of Alan Turing's birth, with many celebration events being planned around the world. This week Warner Bros outbid other companies for the script of a biopic based on Turing's life. The script for The Imitation Game, by first-time screenwriter Graham Moore and based in turn on the biography by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, was snapped up by Warner Bros in a 7-figure deal. Right now the leading candidate to portray Turing is Leonardo DiCaprio."
At Least it Wasn't Keanu Reeves... (Score:5, Funny)
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Zing! You just made Sad Keanu sad.
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Re:At Least it Wasn't Keanu Reeves... (Score:4, Informative)
I vote that this was posted by a computer AI.
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woah..
Two Certainties (Score:3)
If Scorsese's directing, DiCaprio's leading.
If DiCaprio's leading, Scorsese's directing.
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If Scorsese's directing, DiCaprio's leading.
If DiCaprio's leading, Scorsese's directing.
I'm replying to myself to clarify that I don't believe Scorsese and DiCaprio shall work together on every project... But a biopic on historic figure Alan Turing? C'mon, that's right up their alley.
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Scorsese is a brilliant director, I don't mind this in the least bit.
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...and how does this bijection account for the fact that Christopher Nolan directed Inception?
Exception that proves the rule.
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James Cameron directed Titanic. And I doubt Scorsese directed that episode of Growing Pains.
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Scorsese doing Growing Pains? Next up, Tarantino does Seventh Heaven.
I might pay to see that, especially if Jessica Biel's character loses her virginity onscreen.
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I think I got my father to give Matt Damon a full chance (he tolerated him in Saving Private Ryan) and give DiCaprio a full one in a twofer by forcing him to watch "The Departed". "But Dad, it's a Scorsese gangster flick. How bad could it be? And if you let Mom pick, she's gonna make us watch another episode of Bridezillas."
Re:Two Certainties (Score:4, Funny)
...and how does this bijection account for the fact that Christopher Nolan directed Inception?
Exception that proves the rule.
Inception that proves the rule.
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Maybe there is a tie in. Inception was Turing's dream.
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Maybe they are "an item"?
Whatever they have together, it used to be DeNiro in DiCaprio's place. Since DeNiro hasn't partnered with another director, I'm guessing Scorsese makes and breaks these Scorsese+ItalianAmericanMaleLead relationships.
Just a question of length... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Just a question of length... (Score:5, Funny)
Only if that actor is Turing-complete.
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I think Leo solved this problem quite well in Titanic
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Yes
But you can never be sure he'll stop playing
Way immature to play scientist like Turing (Score:2)
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Maybe someone like Tom Hanks would be a good fit as Turing.
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Hanks is too old. Turing was in his early 40s when he died.
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Hanks is the right "persuasion" though, and makeup can do a lot for age onscreen.
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Re:Way immature to play scientist like Turing (Score:4, Informative)
He is one of the last actors I would imagine to play character like Turing, a thoughtful man, mathematician, scientist.. Everything Leo isn't.
He's an actor though, so given a reasonable script he can play a thoughtful man, mathematician, and scientist.
I know he's someone that it seems fashionable to hate but I've liked a lot of his movies.
Re:Way immature to play scientist like Turing (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, I hated him after Titanic, mostly because of the teenage girl swoon thing...
Then I saw him in "Catch Me If You Can" and decided he really was a good actor.
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Look at damned near anything he's ever done. In many ways, it's a shame he did Titanic, as that heartthrob thing is something he still hasn't lived down.
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His best role was in "What's eating Gilbert Grape"
Personally, I think he looks too gay to play Turing.
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He's shown his chops enough times now to convince me he's pretty good. He was very good in The Aviator and pretty impressive in Revolutionary Road.
Fantastic (Score:3)
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Yes, he might once have had the image of a teen girl crush, but he's long become a grown man and i think he was exceptional in all his recent roles.
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He has been quite good. There are more talented actors though. The thing with Leonardo DiCaprio though is that he may be the actor with the best judgement in what movies to play in. If you look at his filmography, you notice that he plays in relatively few movies, but those really tend to be smart, well put together movies.
I am kind of hoping that he does play Alan Turing, not necessarily for his acting skills so much, but just because it tells me that the script is likely to have been well done.
Oh Really (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Did you forget A Beautiful Mind? [imdb.com]; IMO the Turing story has a lot more potential...
I'm thinking Ron Howard and Russell Crowe (Score:2)
oh... yeah
Lots of interesting angles (Score:5, Interesting)
A story on Turing could exploits a lot of interesting angles. He's an important figure in computer science AND in cryptography. His most prestigious work was done with WWII in the backdrop, and helped the allies tremendously. Finally, he has the total romantic yet misunderstood hero story - his contribution was a war secret, he was condemned for his homosexuality by the state he helped so much, and died a Plato death.
There's a kickass script to be made out of that.
Oh and DiCaprio is a fine choice. Great actor, versatile enough to pull it out and to let the character be the story.
Re:Lots of interesting angles (Score:4, Informative)
Wouldn't that be a Socratic death?
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'I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"' -- Chris Knight, "Real Genius".
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Neither, if the wiki article is correct: No mention of how Touring's mentor died (probably not hemlock poisoning at the behest of the city council, though), and Touring himself was apparently poisoned entirely without a trial of any kind, public or private.
Clever with the cyanide in the apple trick, though, considering that apples *naturally* contain it (though usually inaccessibly in the seeds, rather than the pulp..)
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So Hollywood will look at all those possibilities and determine the following:
* They will gloss over his importance to computer science considerably because its hard to explain to their perceived audience. They will likely show something but otherwise ignore it.
* They will gloss over his importance to cryptography except to show him personally cracking the enigma machine (ignoring the rest of Bletchley Park most likely)
* They will seize on his being homosexual and make most of the film focus on how he was p
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Actually, I think as long as they make it about a genius who happened to be gay, instead of a gay man who happened be a genius, it will work out very, very well, both in terms of storyline and in terms of what it does for people.
Turing + Hollywood (Score:5, Funny)
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Hm, good start, but I can see you are not an experienced movie writer like me. Your script lacks a lot of things. For a start, you need :
- A waving american flag, though it could be there for no apparent reason.
- A bomb with a blinking diode on it.
- A way in which the character gains new insight and grows as a person.
- (Since he is supposed to be smart) a scene of Turing playing chess with someone and thinking for hours, then making a one move checkmate.
- (Since space ships are involved and Turing still is
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Yes
Or even better, it's a lesbian woman and she makes out with Mila Kunis
Jeremy Northam! (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't have any large issue with DiCaprio playing Turing. He is versatile, capable, and very hard working. However, the part should go to Jeremy Northam. It would have been a better age match if they tapped him 20 years ago, but there are other factors to consider than matching the actor's age to the character in his prime. I didn't know Turing, so it's just an impression, but I think Jeremy Northam would do a superb job. See The Winslow Boy and tell me I'm wrong.
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What, Ben Affleck wasn't available? (Score:3)
It could be a zany rom-com with a dog, a monkey using an abacus, and even fit in the gay angle somehow (maybe a fashion designer on the side, a la Zoolander?). Tom Cruise could be the romantic interest, fighting with Turing the whole time about how machines are evil and Xenu is the one true way, until the monkey, riding the dog, slaps Cruise with a fish and makes him realize the errors of his ways. Let Terry Gilliam direct.
Guaranteed $500 mil 1st weekend.
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Don't be ridiculous, Hollywood would never acknowledge someone being gay in a biopic. Unless of course it's a Big Important Picture about them being gay (could still go that way, it's got the required ending).
I expect Ellen Page will be the love interest.
Shoot-outs on a train. (Score:2, Insightful)
That I can't wait to see, or the part where Turing blasts the incoming V2 with a couple of .45s held sideways. Gangsta style. While diving over a moving tank. In slow motion.
This is gonna be AWESOME.
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Sod that, how about Turing being American, with the Americans cracking Enigma...?
Oooh, the apple scene (Score:2)
Why not a British actor? (Score:4, Insightful)
Why not a British actor?
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They're actors, they're supposed to act the role, not actually be the role.
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Because the film will be marketed mostly to the US market, and Americans don't like watching non-Americans doing anything important. Actually they are more likely to rewrite history so that Turing is an American and its all American activity at Bletchley Park that cracks the Enigma. Since the average person on the street has never heard of Turing, or of Enigma it won't make any difference that its all a gross distortion of history.
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More notably perhaps, Maj. Richard D. Winters (Damian Lewis).
None of this disproves the AC's point however. British actors act American when playing an American hero and American actors act American when playing a British hero.
I find the villain side slightly different. I suspect much of this stems from British plays where it is more common for villains to be complex and charismatic characters. Notably, American Shakespearian actors such as Walken play such roles.
He can (Score:2)
I think the conclusion is that he could do it
If only Hitler knew... (Score:2)
Isn't it ironic that a Jew and a homosexual helped end the war with such monumental scientific contributions? (Einstein with atomic bombs, Turing with cryptanalysis.) :)
Anyway, would love to see an unflinching movie on this great man's life! A true hero and my most favorite computer scientist ever. Tragic what happened to him later in life...
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Isn't it ironic that a Jew and a homosexual helped end the war with such monumental scientific contributions? (Einstein with atomic bombs, Turing with cryptanalysis.) :)
Anyway, would love to see an unflinching movie on this great man's life! A true hero and my most favorite computer scientist ever. Tragic what happened to him later in life...
Except that at the end of the war Jews were given some stolen land, while the homos continued to be persecuted to the point of driving the father of Computer Science to commit suicide. The homos that were in nazi camps were transferred to traditional prisons.
Turing Machine banned (Score:2)
How long after the purchase will they prohibit anyone from using the term Turning Machine in any product or application?
http://code.google.com/p/moonblink/wiki/Tricorder [google.com]
Sorry Tricorder fans, Tricorder has been deleted from the Android Market by Google, at the demand of CBS's legal weasels. This all happened without any discussion or warning -- I was simply notified after the fact.
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Can't have women drooling over a geek. Even if it's only an actor playing a geek. 'tis not natural. /jk
Not only a geek, but a gay geek. That means women drooling over DiCaprio, gay people as well, and even geeks might find some bits that turn them on. Now imagine a transgender homosexual geek...
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Women do drool over men who are into other men, you know.
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... clever.
But I think the "once you have a girlfriend they all come running" phenomenon thing is a mixture of "Well, he's a got a girlfriend, he can't be a total bastard, right?" and "Well, I'm so much better than she is, obviously, and I'll prove it by taking him."
Re:That won't work (Score:5, Informative)
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Also, many girls have told me they like watching gay porn much more than lesbian porn.. which is true for most men too, just in reverse.
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"Bullshit. No real man cares about women falling in love with eachother. We just like to see hot chicks dyke out. Q: Why do women fake orgasms? A: They think we fucking care. Quit sissy-fying guyhood or GTFO."
I didn't think this was funny until I saw the poster's username.
Re:That won't work (Score:5, Funny)
Being a gay man is a disease. AIDS is an advanced form.
You talk like a closet fag. Try not to dream of muscles when you sleep tonight.
Paging Dr. Freud? (Score:2)
Yes, the AC went off on a homophobic rant. However, I don't subscribe to the Freudian concept of homophobia as related to repressed homosexuality.
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Not Freud. They showed gay porn to homophobes and a control group and counted the boners. Verified.
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because the anus tends to get torn and bleed much more than the naturally self-lubricating vagina or mouth. Other fact: gay men tend to have A LOT MORE partners than anyone else what with no female inhibitions to put the brakes on things. Being a gay man is a disease. AIDS is an advanced form.
You do know that you can have anal sex with women too, right? Besides, females don't put much brakes to amount of sex men have, not at least for me. Usually they're trying to get sex too often. On the other hand, I do live in Thailand.
And what would you say about having sex with kathoeys? They're originally men, but have turned into women, have boobs and are generally even more beautiful than real women. Is that gay sex if it's pre-op (still have penis), post-op (now they have vagina, but have been men be
female inhibition (Score:2)
I think Mr. Homophobic AC has a point with the female inhibition thing. However, that concept implies to me that it's a general male issue rather than an issue specific to _homosexual_ males - straight males would also act like that if straight females were more cooperative.
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He was a fag. Stop making it normal. It's not. No matter how hard you try.
If there is anything more useless than a homophobe it is an anonymous coward homophobe.
I bet he was afraid to approach a woman anyway. They can be manipulative by nature you know. .
And a misogynist on top of it.
Poltroon.
Re:That won't work (Score:5, Insightful)
I know you're a troll, but let's do a simple takedown of some of your "points" shall we?
He should have waited for AIDS to come around.
He died in 1954 at the age of 41. AIDS was first discovered ca. 1979, so he would've been 66. Do you know a lot of 66-year-olds who have lots of sex? Especially with multiple partners? Neither do I.
AIDS = the Anally Injected Death Sentence!
Not anymore. Most people with AIDS in the first world live nearly as long as their counterparts without AIDS. Sure, it's still likely to do you in at some point, but when that point is at 70 vs 75 without AIDS, it's not such a huge setback. Nevertheless, the disease can still be deadly at a young age, and having a weakened immune system makes even minor infections much more serious.
Fact: anal sex transmits this virus more effectively than other forms of sex because the anus tends to get torn and bleed much more than the naturally self-lubricating vagina or mouth.
The mouth does not naturally lubricate per se; saliva is a digestive aid. However, there is nothing particularly heterosexual about the mouth nor particularly homosexual about the anus.
Other fact: gay men tend to have A LOT MORE partners than anyone else what with no female inhibitions to put the brakes on things.
Perhaps, although my straight friends seem to have a lot more sex than I do. Do you know Alan Turing's sexual history? If not, then tendencies are meaningless to the evaluation of the life of one man.
Being a gay man is a disease. AIDS is an advanced form.
There are far more heterosexuals with AIDS than there are homosexuals in total.
He was a fag. Stop making it normal. It's not. No matter how hard you try.
In one sense, you're right: homosexuals account for 2–5% of the population. In another sense, though, you are wrong: homosexuality occurs with enough frequency that it is not outside the range of normal variation, and it occurs in other species as well (to a much more limited extend). Also, there are plenty of things that (presently) aren't normal under the same criteria, like having a PhD, being a mathematical genius, and fundamentally defining the elements of an entirely new discipline. Are those also bad?
I bet he was afraid to approach a woman anyway.
Could be, but of what relevance is that? If he wasn't interested in women, then being afraid to approach them is largely irrelevant, especially at a time when women were virtually nonexistent in math and science.
They can be manipulative by nature you know.
Funnily enough again, the most manipulative people I know are straight. Although I've certainly known manipulative homosexuals, they do not seem over-represented vis-á-vis heterosexuals. Hard statistics, of course, would be preferable.
Unless you're enough of a man to win their trust.
What, you mean like an anonymous coward?
Fags aren't.
See, once again I find myself in the strange position where most of my friends consider me the most trustworthy person they know. It's a shame you never bothered to actually meet some real gay people.
They can be substitute "girlfriends" to women.
Some are, to be sure. I have one straight female friend, and we usually do "guy" things together. The rest of my friends are straight males, none of whom are particularly lacking for masculinity, I might add.
They definitely can't close the deal.
A gay man can have sex with a woman just as well as a straight man. In fact, he might even enjoy it (physically). It will never, however, be what he primarily desires nor what he finds as expressive of a lasting emotional connection. Thus, gay men tend to avoid sex with women, since it leads to false promises, mistrust, and broken hearts.
They're fags.
That's a tautology.
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I know you're a troll, but let's do a simple takedown of some of your "points" shall we?
Trolls exist to waste other people's time, it's probably copy-pasta and by taking the time you've lost. That you know just makes you look stupid, it's like knowing it's a trap but walking right into it anyway. The only way to win is not to play.
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Obviously the original troll isn't going to stop being an asshole, but someone else might read the response and learn something, or just see things in a different way. That can't be a bad thing.
I say "nice work" on keeping it level-headed. If I had cared enough to reply, I certainly wouldn't have been so decent
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There are far more heterosexuals with AIDS than there are homosexuals in total.
Estimates place the homosexual percentage of the population anywhere from one to twenty percent, with the five to ten percent range being backed by most studies. If more than five percent of the heterosexual population has AIDS, then the species is in a pretty poor state...
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Let me guess, you gave up on mathematics ever since you couldn't figure out the blocks in kindergarten?
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Actually ummm... I saw a research study done on this before and old people get it on plenty. Especially in rest homes where it's easy to socialize and find new partners. I'd cite something but...
Do you REALLY want to google that??
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Don't forget that the "OMG so many partners!" thing has been more or less completely debunked.
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Other fact: gay men tend to have A LOT MORE partners than anyone else
Awww, looks like someone's jealous..
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20 years ago I would have agreed.
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This is the single gayest comment, and beautiful.
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>reads whole message
>reads last line
>another "turing was a fag" troll
*sigh*
Go drink bleach.
--
BMO
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All of that research into Turing's contemporaries just so you can justify your homophobic biases.
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But nothing he did at Bletchley Park has anything to do with "produc[ing] the foundations for our society." His machines there were totally special-purpose rotor machines, no more related to modern computers than were the German Enigma machines they existed to decrypt or the Polish decryption "Bomba" they were based on.
He didn't have anything to do with Colossus, which was the one project from there that did have any relevance to modern computing; the idea that he was responsible for Colossus is a common mi
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Why do people remember Turing rather than Church and Post
Church because of scientific progress, and Post because of telephones and email.
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Post's 1936 paper described the same kind of machine, and Post came up with better versions of it (nobody uses Turing's original formulation, and the formulations actually used in textbooks etc usually build on Post's work).
I can't find a reference right this second but I'm fairly certain that nobody thought of the DFA or PDA abstractions for >10 years after all three papers were published (I think Post's later work on string rewriting and the PCP helped lead to those ideas along with the corresponding i
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The fact that things got named after Turing when terminology was first being settled in the late 30s-early 50s is, as you say, not attributable to his homosexuality. But that's not what I'm talking about- though naming things is a very visible way of assigning credit etc it doesn't explain the continuing total imbalance of credit or the popular idolization [wikipedia.org].
You make an interesting point about oracles- I don't know about independent inventors there- but here's a relevant quote from a paper "Turing Oracle Mach
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You can really only have so many minutes of 'montage of intense-looking-dude scribbling math on stuff' before people lose interest. At that point, you have to split the remaining feature-length-film time between WWII drama and persecution and suicide drama...
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No need to see the same movie twice.
that's a pretty dumb statement, if you classify all those as the same movie then you must have watched 5 different movies of different genres and then never watched another one.
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Robin Williams - Mork and Mindy
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At this point I'm thankful it's not Will Smith.
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Great, yet another terrible fake English accent to look forward to. Why does Hollywood always hire British actors to portray the villains, yet never hires British actors to portray British characters?
It will probably have a fake gay lisp as well, adding to a completely unbelievable character.