Dreamworks’ Wikileaks movie continues to come together, with Variety reporting that Anna Karenina star Alicia Vikander has entered negotiations to star in the movie for director Bill Condon.
Benedict Cumberbatch is set to play WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the film, which follow the rise and fall of his controversial website. Alicia Vikander will play one of his co-workers and eventual love interest. Daniel Bruhl (who recently replaced James McAvoy) is also onboard to play Daniel Domscheit-Berg, whose departure from the site in 2011 – due to major philosophical and journalistic differences – is credited as one of the main reasons that thousands of secret international cables were leaked, which led to massive international controversy.
Bill Condon is directing from a screenplay by Josh Singer, which is adapted from Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World’s Most Dangerous Website and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War On Secrecy by David Leigh and Luke Harding. Filming will begin next year.
Oh dear, I do hope she does a bit of background research – especially on Daniel Domscheit-Berg – before signing on the dotted line. Apparently, Wikileaks has already suggested a title for this movie. They’re calling it Dreamworks’ ANTI-Wikileaks movie. Not a good sign.
Maybe that’s because Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book, which this film will be based on, is full of self-promoting – but easily spottable – lies. According to Der Spiegel, Domscheit-Berg is also heavily involved in the film’s production as a consultant.
This is the man who sabotaged the Wikileaks submission platform, stole money and unpublished whistleblower submissions from them, conducted endless interviews smearing Julian Assange, publicised where the passphrase to the unredacted cableset could be found (David Leigh, Guardian journalist’s book chapter title!!!) and, to cap it all, DESTROYED 3,500 unpublished document that whistleblowers had submitted to Wikileaks, risking all to get the truth out to the public.
Doubtless this is the man who this film will portray as the noble hero of information transparency, while Assange is portrayed as an narcisist and meglomaniac. The truth turned upsidedown.