Keira Knightley

It's a long running joke among anglophiles that British actors are positively taking over American film and television. Seriously, they're everywhere. Just take a look at this year's Oscar nominations, or turn your TV in the next few days (seriously, you'll trip over a Brit on some major network property within an hour or two).

Well, it appears that Vanity Fair also noticed this trend while putting together its 2015 Hollywood issue and, with the help of photographer Jason Bell, has created the ultimate tribute, in the form of a cheeky fake newsreel about Great Britain's war on Hollywood, which also re-imagines a bunch of your favorite classic American films remade with British actors. Spoiler alert: The whole thing is awesome. Really awesome.

This year five talented Brits have been nominated for an Academy Award. Most of these names are quite familiar to UK film fans; however, before they were delivering inspiring performances and their names appeared on movie theater marquees, they had to pay their dues with small guest appearances in television series and made-for-TV movies.

Let’s take a brief look at their careers before they were Oscar hopefuls…

The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up over the weekend, after having premiered many highly anticipated films, hosted countless press interviews and red carpets, and handed out several high profile trophies, in a prelude to the true awards season frenzy later this year.

One of the big winners to emerge from Toronto? A very British film about a very British hero, featuring a very British cast. Highly anticipated biopic The Imitation Game, which tells the story of British codebreaker, genius and hero Alan Turing, with the festival's prestigious Grolsch People's Choice Award for 2014. This honor is bestowed by festival audience members, who vote by dropping a ticket into a ballot box after the screening has concluded, to indicate that they liked a film. Apparently they liked Imitation Game quite a bit.

World War II biopic The Imitation Game – which tells the story of British codebreaker, genius and general hero Alan Turing - has been a buzzy project for months now, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the release of the film’s first trailer has been met with rapturous reviews.

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch – well known for his ability to portray complicated genius types like Stephen Hawking, Vincent Van Gogh and Julian Assange – plays Turing, joined by an all-star cast comprised of British acting heavyweights, including the Oscar-nominated Keira Knightley, Game of Thrones’ Charles Dance, Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech, Mark Strong, Rory Kinnear, Matthew Goode, Matthew Beard and more.

Learn - and watch both (fantastic) new trailers – below.

The Amazing Cheekbones Battle of the Century may soon be upon us – actress Keira Knightley is apparently in talks to join Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch in upcoming biopic The Imitation Game, reports the Hollywood Reporter. Based on a biography by Andrew Hodges, the film is focused on the life of Alan Turing, the British mathematician, cryptographer and all around genius who helped crack the German enigma code during World War II.

Cumberbatch has been attached to this film for some time, probably because he seems to have a knack for playing slightly tortured, high octane intellectual types (see also: Sherlock Holmes, Vincent Van Gogh, Stephen Hawking, etc) , so his casting as Turing is basically the definition of perfect.

Knightley – who is probably most well known for her role in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and as Lizzie Bennett in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice remake – is apparently in talks to take on the role of a very conservative woman who develops a “complicated” relationship with Turing and is “there with him until the end.” Given that the end of Turing’s life was packed with tragedy – he was prosecuted by the British government for being homosexual, chose to undergo a hormone treatment known colloquially as chemical castration rather face prison and eventually committed suicide because he was so haunted by his decision – there ought to be plenty of messy emotional material for both Knightley and Cumberbatch to work with. (Protip: Pack tissues)