Benedict Cumberbatch, star of The Hobbit and BBC’s modern-day adaptation of Sherlock Holmes, has been snapped in costume as Julian Assange in the first official image to be released for the forthcoming feature-length film based on Assange’s life, titled The Fifth Estate.
In the pic, Cumberbatch can be seen next to co-star Daniel Brühl, perhaps best known as the famed German sniper in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The film also co-stars Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker) and David Thewlis (War Horse).
Brühl will be playing Daniel Domscheit-Berg, an associate of Assange. Domscheit-Berg’s books WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and The World’s Most Dangerous Website helped inspire the film. The movie also draws on WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War by David Leigh and Luke Harding.
As Entertainment Weekly’s Inside Movies states, the movie will be directed by Bill Condon, who has previously taken the reigns on such films as The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Gods And Monsters and Dreamgirls.
The film is due for release in November. Cumberbatch certainly looks the part. Not sure how Sherlock will go with the Aussie accent though.
