DreamWorks looking at Benedict Cumberbatch and Joel Kinnaman for Julian Assange film

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

There’s been some talk of a Julian Assange film ever since his name hit the news. DreamWorks are finally trying to pull together a cast, as well as a director. Talks of Bill Condon (KINSEY, DREAMGIRLS) as helmer have been going on for a bit now. The studio is now in talks with Benedict Cumberbatch to play Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, and Joel Kinnaman to play his former right hand man, Daniel Domscheit-Berg.

DreamWorks picked up the rights to 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. Over the Summer, there were some talks of Renner getting involved, but we have heard nothing on that since it first surfaced.

For those who haven’t heard of Assange and Wikieaks here is some background:

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.