First look at Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange

A highly anticipated document has emerged online - but this time it's deliberate.

DreamWorks announced today that principal photography has started on its film about the origins and rise to fame of hugely controversial website WikiLeaks - with the titled being revealed as The Fifth Estate. To celebrate, they've released this screen shot, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as current international fugitive Julian Assange (left), and Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds) as co-founder Daniel Domscheit-Berg (right). Co-stars include Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker himself), Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis and Laura Linney.

The production team is headed up by director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls/Twilight) and screenwriter Josh Singer (The West Wing), with the script based on Domscheit-Berg's book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World's Most Dangerous Website and a book written by Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding: WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy.

With Assange still claiming refuge in the London Ecuador Embassy in a bid to avoid facing trial in Sweden, it remains to be seen whether he'll be out in time to see his appearance on the big screen - it's scheduled for release in the US on 15 November this year. Maybe he'll have to wait for the DVD to come out.

[via The Guardian]

Image: ew.com