WikiLeaks: The Movie?
The Guardian confirms that major film studio Dreamworks, led by Steven Spielberg, has bought the rights to two books about WikiLeaks, including one about the newspaper's stormy relationship with leader Julian Assange as he provided scoops this fall.
The book, titled, "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy," and written by Guardian reporters David Leigh and Luke Harding, has brought on threats of a lawsuit from Assange, potentially based on allegations in the book that he refused to protect the name of Afghan informants, whom he said would "deserve it" if they were killed.
Talking about a potential film, Alan Rusbridger, Editor-in-Chief of the paper, said, "It's Woodward and Bernstein meets Stieg Larsson meets Jason Bourne. Plus the odd moment of sheer farce and, in Julian Assange, a compelling character who goes beyond what any Hollywood scriptwriter would dare to invent."
The other book, "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website," which was released just two weeks ago, is by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former spokesperson for the group. He had a falling out with Assange and doesn't treat him kindly in the book, saying that he was obsessed with conspiracy theories against the group and had become controlling and secretive, to the point that he was behaving, "like some kind of emperor or slave trader."
Read much more from that book in our story here.
WikiLeaks responded to the purchase with a statement on Twitter that read, "This is how bulls**t ends up being history: Spielberg lines up WikiLeaks film based on books by opportunists."
Assange has more than unflattering movies to worry about. He's still battling rape allegations, claims that he has fathered at least four children, allegations of anti-semitism, and a new rival website called OpenLeaks, started by Domscheit-Berg.
There is a short film/documentary about WikiLeaks called "Revolution Truth" that was produced by Tangerine Bolen, who worked with Michael Moore on the film, though Bolen is unsure what they'll do with the finished product.
For more, click over to The Guardian.