Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the upcoming thriller 'The Fifth Estate' as the editor-in-chief and founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.  

Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Gruhl
Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl star alongside each other in the upcoming thriller 'The Fifth Estate'

Director Bill Condon saw his film open the Toronto Film Festival this year to a predictably controversial reception. The film is a dramatized account of Julian Assange's exposure of military, government and economic files that were leaked on his website WikiLeaks. Julian Assange did not cooperate with the making of this film.

The film's screenplay is based on the books Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg who was Assange's close confidant and early WikiLeaks collaborator. As well as WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.

Watch 'The Fifth Estate' trailer here

The film's perspective is mostly of Daniel Domscheit-Berg's point of view, played by Daniel Bruhl, who was a young computer hacker taken under the wing of Assange but the ever changing agenda of his boss frustrated Domscheit-Berg who believed Assange had forgotten the initial purpose of WikiLeaks.

Benedict Cumberbatch portrays the Australian activist as a paranoid, radical visionary who's unwillingness to consider how the lives of others are affected in the leaked documents, conclusively destroyed his own creation. 

In a recent interview with Vulture, Bill Condon explained the film's intent, "it celebrates the idea of WikiLeaks and the tremendous potential of it. It does tell the story of its rise and how it came apart to a certain degree" he also suggested "it has to do with the idea of citizen journalism, the great wild west of the Internet. It's a true revolution that we're just coming to terms with".

WikiLeaks took to its official twitter account to voice its disapproval of the film. 

'The Fifth Estate' engages a dramatized version of the widely unknown journey of Julian Assange and WikLeaks, portraying the internet hacking world and the consequences of exposing 'secrets'.  According to the Guardian "[Condon] has succeeded admirably: this is highly competent catnip for the watercooler crowd. Toronto has prepared itself well for the forthcoming week with a hot potato. Now roll on the cheese".

The movie will be hitting theatres on October 11th 2013.

WikiLeaks
Julian Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg