You wait and wait for a movie about a mathematical genius, and then three come at once. I’ve got Turing, I’ve got Ramanujan, I’ve got Erdős.
The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game is an Alan Turing biopic, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. It’s out in November, but this trailer has just been released.
[youtube url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZkHJMxR-l0]
The Man Who Knew Infinity
The Man Who Knew Infinity is a Srinivasa Ramanujan biopic, starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons and based on Robert Kanigel’s book. It’s been in development hell for eight years, but according to Variety filming will start in Cambridge in August.
Erdős-Bacon
Erdős-Bacon is a documentary about the Small World Phenomenon, and in particular the quest to minimise both your Erdős number – the number of publications linked by co-authors between you and Paul Erdős – and your Bacon number – the number of films linked by cast members between you and Kevin Bacon.
The producers are a keen and youthful bunch, which means they’ve gone to Kickstarter to raise money. They want \$40,000, and they hope this pitch will encourage you to open your wallets:
This documentary is the handshake that links a famed actor and a legendary mathematician, creating history’s lowest Erdős-Bacon number.
[iframe width=”480″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/395786474/erdos-bacon/widget/video.html” frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”]
Slate also has a story on the Turing biopic. I didn’t feel like its criticism that the trailer hides his sexuality is fair. I mean, it’s only a 2-minute trailer, and I think it’s pretty clearly alluded to. And he was engaged to her for a time, so their relationship is not completely fabricated. What do you think?
http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/07/22/alan_turing_biopic_trailer_does_the_the_imitation_game_hide_his_homosexuality.html