DreamLeaks: Hollywood set for Assange biopic

Get short URL

Published time: July 24, 2012 18:42
Edited time: July 25, 2012 12:50

If you think the drama surrounding Julian Assange and WikiLeaks sounds straight out of Hollywood, Tinsel Town’s elite couldn’t agree more. DreamWorks studio is planning a film adaptation of the life of the whistleblower and his website.

DreamWorks, the studio behind such box-office hits as Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty and Almost Famous, acquired the rights to two books about WikiLeaks last year. Now the studio is believed to be taking the next steps to start work on a film based off of the books, and according to the website Deadline.com, The Bourne Legacy'sJeremy Renner “is looking hard” at landing the role of Julian Assange.

The film, currently untitled, will stem from material published in the pages of 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, by Daniel Domscheit-Berg. Both books were penned by authors from the UK’s Guardian, a paper with the distinction of being one of the few internationally known outlets to publish, in part, documents distributed by WikiLeaks.

Deadline adds that DreamWorks is believed to be considering Bill Condon of the Twilight Saga for a director role in the release, but has refrained from offering almost any official comment on the film since purchasing the rights last year. Of the few details that have emerged, however, writer Josh Singer of The West Wing television program has been linked to penning the script.

There are no details yet on if the film will end where the two WikiLeaks books concluded or if Singer will update it to chronicle Assange’s latest legal battles — the reformed hacker-turned-Wikileaks founder has been hulled up in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for one month now. It might be safe to assume that such might be the case, though. Speaking on behalf of DreamWorks, Production President Holly Bario recently told reporters, "If you're going to invest in this story, you've got to have a satisfying ending."