If you’ve yet to check out Norwegian director Morten Tyldum’s 2011 release, Headhunters, then it’s high time you tracked it down and finally gave it a go. Not only is it one of the most brutal, gross, unique, and exciting action thrillers that have come out in a long time, but you’re also going to need to know what Tyldum is capable of in order to properly get excited for the news that he’s just signed on to make another movie. Deadline reports that his new project is called The Imitation Game, and it’s coming from a Black List script by Graham Moore that was adapted from an Alan Turing biography that Andrew Hodges wrote called “Alan Turing: The Enigma.” The film was originally set to be made by Warner Bros., with J Blakeson on to direct and rumors that Leonardo DiCaprio would star, but the studio dropped the project back in August. For those that might not know, Turing was a pretty interesting guy whose rich life could make for good movie fodder in a number of ways. Just take a look at the source material’s Amazon description, which states: “Hodges tells how Turing’s revolutionary idea of 1936–the concept of a universal machine–laid the foundation for the modern computer and how Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. The book also tells how this work was directly related to Turing’s leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a

Despite a Black List and an apparently-attached big star, the J. Blakeson-directed and Graham Moore-penned The Imitation Game will not be getting made at Warner Bros. Variety reports that the film’s “progress-to-production option had expired, and Warners has decided to not move forward,” which is Hollywood legalese for “the film was supposed to have started by this time, did not, and whoopsie, that was a clause in our agreement.” Producers Nora Grossman and Ido Ostrowsky will now take the script to other studios in hopes that someone else will pick up the tragic story of the “father of computer science.” Warner picked up the film’s script back in October (paying a reported seven-figure sum), mainly under the assumption that Leonardo DiCaprio would star in it and that they film could be fashioned as an awards season contender. THR reports that DiCaprio’s interest in the project has now waned, and that was another factor in Warner’s decision to not renew their agreement. However, Moore and DiCaprio are still in business with WB for another project – Moore was set to pen an adaptation of “The Devil in the White City” for DiCaprio’s Appian Way and Warners back in December.

Leonardo DiCaprio and his production outfit Appian Way have been sitting on the rights to the novel The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic And Madness At The Fair That Changed America for quite a while, with intents to eventually get it made with DiCaprio himself starring as the main character Dr. H.H. Holmes. Holmes was a serial killer from the late 1800s, a twisted freak who built a murderous funhouse of a hotel that contained a gas chamber, a crematorium, and a dissection table… amongst other things, which led to him capturing and murdering anywhere between thirty to a couple hundred people during the Chicago World’s Fair. There’s movement on the project now, as DiCaprio and his people have sold the rights to Warner Bros. and are going to team up with the studio to produce. The first step to actually making a movie is to get a script, so to that end Warners has hired Graham Moore to do an adaptation. You might recognize Moore’s name, because he recently made some waves when his script The Imitation Game was named at the top of the 2011 Black List. And in addition to being a hot screenwriter, he’s also a native Chicagoan, which makes him kind of perfect for this project.

How Leonardo DiCaprio even has time to develop an outside interest in potential new projects is beyond me, what with his upcoming turn in J. Edgar, his new role in Django Unchained, and his apparent interest in starring in a Satori adaptation (and that’s just a quick list of the actor’s most recent attachments). But DiCaprio has apparently found a minute or two in his schedule to chase a project about math genius Alan Turing. Warner Bros. has picked up the rights to Graham Moore’s The Imitation Game, a spec script the first-time scribe has written about Turing (with a huge influence from Andrew Hodges’ “definitive” biography of Turing, Alan Turing: The Enigma). The script reportedly covers much of Turing’s life, and is described as “the life story of this English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, computer scientist, criminally prosecuted homosexual, and tortured soul who committed suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple has it all.” So, I guess we know how it ends?