(Photo: Zap2It)

This should delight the Sherlock fangirls on Tumblr: Benedict Cumberbatch, who's currently shooting The Fifth Estate, in which he plays controversial Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, is reportedly in talks to take on his next awesomely nerdy role. Deadline reports that Mr. Cumberbatch may be gearing up to play Alan Turing in a biopic about the famous British mathematician's life.

Mr. Turing is a storied character in computer science history, having cracked a code during World War II that helped the Allies defeat Germany. He also invented the Turing Test, which helps gauge a computer's ability to behave indistinguishably from a human. In the '50s, Mr. Turing was prosecuted by the British government for being gay, choosing chemical castration over prison time, which eventually lead to his suicide. So: a real feel good movie!

With so many nerd-friendly roles already under his belt (including The Hobbit and Star Trek), we can only hope Mr. Cumberbatch will soon accept a role as Steve "Sweaty" Ballmer in the smash-hit musical comedy Developers!

(Publicity still via Cumberbatch Web)

It was really just a matter of time before Julian Assange's tumultuous life hit the silver screen. Well guess what: Filming commenced today on The Fifth Estate, Dreamworks' Wikileaks movie scheduled to appear in theaters November 15.

My goodness, you can already see the gleam of Oscar gold in their eyes. 

Leading up the cast as Mr. Assange is Benedict Cumberbatch who, of course, plays the titular character in the BBC's "Sherlock." (If you haven't seen it, you ought to knock off work and Netflix it right now; we'll cover for you.) You might also recognize his long face from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or the trailer for the upcoming Star Trek movie. Also appearing in the film: Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Dan Stevens, for some reason. (You bailed on Downton Abbey for this, you ungrateful bastard?)

A summary of the film, from the announcement earlier today:

Following Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Brühl), an early supporter and eventual colleague of Julian Assange (Cumberbatch), “The Fifth Estate” traces the heady, early days of WikiLeaks, culminating in the release of a series of controversial and history changing information leaks. The website’s overnight success brought instant fame to its principal architects and transformed the flow of information to news media and the world at large.

But among some of Mr. Cumberbatch's most devoted fans--i.e., obsessive "Sherlockians" on Tumblr--the publicity still above is causing mixed feelings. Sure, it's another chance to watch Mr. Cumberbatch work his cumbermagic, but look at that hair. YUCK.

(h/t Red Scharlach Points At Interesting Things)