By now, most of you have heard about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, a controversial man who changed the way information was spread and given to us. The site, and it’s founder, are still hot topics, so of course a film about the founder and the creation of the site was all but inevitable, and Dreamworks is doing just that with their new film, ‘The Fifth Estate’. The film will star Benedict Cumberbatch, of BBC’s ‘Sherlock’, as Julian Assange, and Daniel Bruhl as Assange’s partnet, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and directed by Bill Condon, who directed the last two installments of ‘The Twilight Saga’, as well as ‘Dreamgirls. The film’s screenplay is written by Josh Singer (TV’s “Fringe,” “The West Wing”), based on “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website” by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” by David Leigh and Luke Harding. This seems like a story that is ripe for a film, and I am very intrigued to see how it plays out.
According to the press release, the film will be “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.”
Acknowledging that the film is happening quite quickly after the events of what transpired, director Bill Condon says the film isn’t supposed to a definitive tale looking at how Wikileaks came to be. ” “It may be decades before we understand the full impact of WikiLeaks and how it’s revolutionized the spread of information. So this film won’t claim any long view authority on its subject, or attempt any final judgment. We want to explore the complexities and challenges of transparency in the information age and, we hope, enliven and enrich the conversations WikiLeaks has already provoked.”
I’m a huge fan of Benedict Cumberbatch, an actor I greatly admire and have come to love thanks to BBC’s series ‘Sherlock’. He has a very strong presence, and to have him leading this film already makes me that much more interested in the film. He’s someone who can play many extremes, and really just oozes passion for acting, and it shows in his roles. While the movie is something I would have watched, having Cumberbatch in the lead role makes it land on straight in the middle of my radar. The film is set to be released November 15, 2013, right in time for an awards push from Dreamworks. There’s no better time to release something like this, and I really can’t wait to see how it turns out. Will you be checking out ‘The Fifth Estate’?
Let me know in the comments below, only here at Chip and Company, and hit the jump for the full press release.
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