10:32 am - 10/03/2012
Benedict Cumberbatch is in line to play Julian Assange in a forthcoming biopic about the WikiLeaks founder, reports Deadline.
Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio is basing its film on the books WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding, and Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website, written by Assange's former right-hand man Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Both books were optioned by the studio last year. Deadline says Joel Kinnaman of the US version of The Killing, who was recently cast as the new Robocop, could play Domscheit-Berg.
The casting news suggests that Jeremy Renner, who had previously been tipped to play Assange, is no longer in the running. Bill Condon, the man behind The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part One and Two, remains the studio's first choice to direct.
Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has claimed political asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex-crime accusations. His lawyer has argued that his client would not receive a fair trial, and Assange also fears he could face extradition to the United States.
The WikiLeaks film was previously reported to be pitched somewhere between The Social Network and All the President's Men, and is one of a number of mooted projects about Assange doing the rounds. Others include an Australian TV movie, in which Anthony LaPaglia plays a cop tracking the young Assange as he embarks on his early career as a hacker in Melbourne, a fictional account of the activist's adventures in internet dating by Khodorkovsky director Cyril Tuschi, and a second TV film from the HBO stable.
Cumberbatch has so much work on his plate that fans of his turn as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC TV series Sherlock may be wondering how he plans to fit series three into his schedule. The British actor plays a headline-grabbing villain role in the next Star Trek film, titled Into Darkness, and is voicing both the dragon, Smaug, and the Necromancer in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. He will also star in Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave, and has a role lined up in the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of the Pulitzer and Tony-winning play August: Osage County opposite Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
SOURCE
Fans are just wondering when he's going to end up in rehab for exhaustion, tbh.
Also: does anyone else keep getting this error -- Error updating journal: Client error: Sorry, there was a problem with content of the entry??
Benedict Cumberbatch in line to play Julian Assange
Benedict Cumberbatch is in line to play Julian Assange in a forthcoming biopic about the WikiLeaks founder, reports Deadline.
Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks studio is basing its film on the books WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding, and Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website, written by Assange's former right-hand man Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Both books were optioned by the studio last year. Deadline says Joel Kinnaman of the US version of The Killing, who was recently cast as the new Robocop, could play Domscheit-Berg.
The casting news suggests that Jeremy Renner, who had previously been tipped to play Assange, is no longer in the running. Bill Condon, the man behind The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part One and Two, remains the studio's first choice to direct.
Assange is currently holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he has claimed political asylum to avoid extradition to Sweden to face sex-crime accusations. His lawyer has argued that his client would not receive a fair trial, and Assange also fears he could face extradition to the United States.
The WikiLeaks film was previously reported to be pitched somewhere between The Social Network and All the President's Men, and is one of a number of mooted projects about Assange doing the rounds. Others include an Australian TV movie, in which Anthony LaPaglia plays a cop tracking the young Assange as he embarks on his early career as a hacker in Melbourne, a fictional account of the activist's adventures in internet dating by Khodorkovsky director Cyril Tuschi, and a second TV film from the HBO stable.
Cumberbatch has so much work on his plate that fans of his turn as Sherlock Holmes in the BBC TV series Sherlock may be wondering how he plans to fit series three into his schedule. The British actor plays a headline-grabbing villain role in the next Star Trek film, titled Into Darkness, and is voicing both the dragon, Smaug, and the Necromancer in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy. He will also star in Steve McQueen's Twelve Years a Slave, and has a role lined up in the forthcoming big-screen adaptation of the Pulitzer and Tony-winning play August: Osage County opposite Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
SOURCE
Fans are just wondering when he's going to end up in rehab for exhaustion, tbh.
Also: does anyone else keep getting this error -- Error updating journal: Client error: Sorry, there was a problem with content of the entry??
But he's really not doing much for that whole ~trying to increase my acting repertoire and stop getting typecast~ thing.
But.
Depending on the position this film takes on the sexual assault charges and the hundreds of other issues that make Assange so controversial, can you imagine the epically awkward, offensive, terrible, and embarrassing Cumberbatch quotes that will result from the interviews for this film?
If his promotional duties for that other minefield, 12 Years a Slave, occur around the same time, I truly think ONTD will have a heart attack from the epic wank that will inevitably ensue.
Stackin' notes, makin' bank.
assange is super sexy and this cunt isn't
No.
Re: the Oscars - Assange is a super-polarizing figure (even within the left) and the controversy surrounding him is still fresh & ongoing. When you also take into account his open hostility to the U.S., it's going to be a tough sell for the Academy, especially if the film portrays him as a sympathetic figure.
And who cares if he's got a lot on his plate in terms of acting roles? Benadryl can always asexually reproduce and spawn more of himself~
The only reason I come into Bumblesnatch posts is for the giant shade that is thrown his way.
Edited at 2012-10-03 03:32 pm (UTC)
idk my general feelings about this are being targeted at you sry