Benedict Cumberbatch certainly looks the part in The Fifth Estate, in which he is playing notorious journalist Julian Assange, but apparently his subject is none too happy about the film. On Wednesday night Assange spoke during an Oxford Union debate via videolink and took part of his time to slam the upcoming movie, which is being directed by Oscar winning filmmaker Bill Condon.
According to Deadline, when the subject turned to the new DreamWorks film Assange called the project a "massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff." He claims to have read a copy of the script - though offered no evidence that he has one - and said that the project will be “fanning the flames” of international conflict due to the fact that the movie reportedly begins "inside a military complex in Iran with the suggestion a nuclear bomb is being built."
Production on the movie only began earlier this week, the studio also announcing that it will be coming out right in the heart of this year's Oscar race on November 15th of this year. In addition to Cumberbatch the film also stars Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten.
It's interesting that this would happen now, as just last week Prince Albert of Monaco and the rest of the royal family denounced the upcoming biopic Grace of Monaco, saying that the story is "pointlessly glamorized and contains important historical inaccuracies as well as scenes of pure fiction." I guess now is not the time to be in the business of making biopics.
