DreamWorks Julian Assange Pic Talk Focusing On Benedict Cumberbatch And Joel Kinnaman?
The conversations on DreamWorks‘ Julian Assange film that Twilight Saga’s Bill Condon will likely direct is now with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the WikiLeaks founder, and Robocop‘s Joel Kinnaman playing his former right hand man, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The studio would not confirm this, but it seemed intriguing and dishy enough to discuss. DreamWorks acquired the books WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War On Secrecy, by David Leigh and Luke Harding, and Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World’s Most Dangerous Website, written by Domscheit-Berg. Josh Singer wrote the script.
During the summer, word surfaced that DreamWorks had some loose discussions with Jeremy Renner, so we’ll have to see where this goes. Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006 and established himself as a major thorn in the side of governments for leaking embarrassing diplomatic cables and secrets. He has been dealing with his own legal travails, as Sweden wants to try him for sexually assaulting two women and the U.S. wants to prosecute him for leaking classified documents, after it arrested an Army soldier for allegedly providing Assange with the goods. The film’s third act continues to unfold, but there is no shortage of projects based on the polarizing figure. Universal and Marc Shmuger have an Alex Gibney-directed documentary, while HBO, Universal and Megan Ellison are also working on films.
Cumberbatch is on a star track, and not just because he’s signed on to costar in Star Trek Into Darkness. The Sherlock star is doing August: Osage County, the Steve McQueen-directed Twelve Years A Slave and he plays The Necromancer, and, from what I hear, the voice of Smaug in Peter Jackson’s upcoming The Hobbit trilogy.
Cumberbatch is an amazing actor. If the script is great, this movie is going to rock! BTW, he’s still the CURRENT Sherlock, the 3rd series is set to start filming next January.
Benedict would make an oddly good Assange. Hope this works put.
Cumberbatch is a brilliant actor, would be a great choice.
Cumberbatch is incredible. This sounds fantastic
This sounds pretty darn awesome! Hope it happens!
Hope so as Cumberbatch is incredible. Morst exciting actor working today
Perfect casting but then I want Cumberbatch to play so many roles. he’s ideal for Hugh Hefner too. Plus I want him to be Ant man. If I had my way he’d never have a day off.
Cumberbatch is truly one of the greatest actors in the world and I’m pleased he’s finally getting the work his talent deserves. I hope this works out for him. They need to do a film version of his After the dance. He was extraordinary on stage in that role.
As someone who wants worldwide domination for Cumberbatch this pleases me.
100% behind Benedict Cumberbatch but the director Condon sucks. Cant they get Paul Mcguigan.
Condon is an Oscar winner, and much as I respect Mcguigan, he has not established himself to handle a big project like this. Some Sherlock fangirls need to learn more about the industry before opening their mouths to embarrass themselves.
“Cant they get Paul Mcguigan.”
Congrats, you are the first person in the world to utter such a sentiment. Whilst I like his direction of the ‘Sherlock’ series, his other film resume is pretty lacklustre, with ‘Gangster No. 1′ probably his best effort (largely due to Bettany’s inventive performance). That being said, I don’t care how many lame ‘Twilight’ films or shameless Oscar-bait that Condon has on his CV: the guy made ‘Gods and Monsters’, and anyone who can make a film that good deserves another chance.