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‘The Fifth Estate’: Benedict Cumberbatch Was Right, Wikileaks Doesn’t Approve

By Patricia Didelot
Published on: 02:16 PST, Sep 20, 2013

When interviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival, The Fifth Estate star Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, said that the whistleblowing website would not approve of the film. He was right.

Wikileaks has put out a memo slamming the Bill Condon film which also stars Daniel Brühl. In the detailed memo the website explains what, from their point of view, is wrong with the movie.

For starters they are not happy how the website nor Assange, for that matter, are depicted in the drama going as far as calling it “irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful.”

Among other things, the memo states that the script is based on biased sources that are outdated by three years and only tell one side of the story.

Josh Singer based his script on two books, Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former WikiLeaks spokesman portrayed by Daniel Brüh (Rush) and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by The Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.

The memo alleges that The Fifth Estate’s sources are incorrect,

“These are personally biased sources and are now outdated by three years. They tell only one side of the story,” the memo reads. These authors had an interest in portraying Julian Assange as dishonest or manipulative for competitive, personal and legal reasons.”

Furthermore, the memo accuses the production of having an agenda, citing specific quotes from Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Assange.

According to the memo, in interviews with Vogue and The Guardian, the British actor said he felt as if Condon was trying to portray Assange as an “antisocial megalomaniac,” and was written as a “cartoon baddie” in an early draft of the script.

If you are interested in reading said memo, click here.

Several tweets from the Wikileaks handle tells us all we need to know of how they feel about Benedict Cumberbatch’s adaptation, The Fifth Estate.

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wikileaks julian assange Bill Condon benedict cumberbatch
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