There has been a lot of movement lately on Bill Condon’s Wikileaks movie, which promises to document how the controversial organization – and its leader, Julian Assange – came to power. The film, now titled The Fifth Estate, has been adding cast members and co-financiers as the Sundance Film Festival rolls on. Now it even has a release date.
The movie will open in the thick of the Oscar-hopefuls season, reaching theaters on November 15th in North America, according to Screen Daily. Benedict Cumberbatch will play Assange … which is reason enough for us to buy a ticket to Condon’s film. In addition, Up and Comers is saying that Anthony Mackie is joining the ensemble of the picture, which now is shooting.
In addition to the title and release date news from Screen Daily, EW has posted the first official still, which you can check out below:
The Fifth Estate will be based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website, as well as WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by British journalist David Leigh and Luke Harding. Laura Linney, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten round out the supporting cast.
But it’s likely going to be all about Cumberbatch and his portrayal of this mysterious figure, Assange. The Australian publisher blasted onto the international political scene by publishing U.S. military documents that were leaked by WikiLeaks “supporters.” The movie has the potential to be very contemporary, and can fascinate if Condon and Cumberbatch figure out how to dig deep into this complex personality. Of course, in addition to Estate, Cumberbatch will soon be seen in Star Trek Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams’ follow up to his brilliant Star Trek reboot.
