Wikileaks Movie Coming To the Big Screen

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Wikileaks Movie Coming To the Big Screen

Posted by samzenpus on Sunday January 23, 2011 @04:37AM from the what-took-so-long dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "First Facebook and now Wikileaks as the Guardian reports that studio executives have picked up the screen rights to the forthcoming Julian Assange biography 'The Most Dangerous Man in the World' by award-winning Australian writer Andrew Fowler. The book details Assange's life from his childhood on Magnetic Island in Queensland, Australia, all the way through to his founding of the whistleblower website in 2006 to publish classified material. Producers Barry Josephson and Michelle Krumm, who have optioned The Most Dangerous Man in the World, say they are planning a 'suspenseful drama' in the vein of All the President's Men and with the thrill of a Tom Clancy novel. 'As soon as I met Andrew and read a few chapters of his profound book, I knew that – with his incredibly extensive depth of knowledge – it would enable us to bring a thought-provoking thriller to the screen,' says Krumm."

36 of 181 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

I hope the script gets leaked by EmperorOfCanada · 2011-01-23 04:39 · Score: 5, Interesting

I hope the script gets leaked.
The contracts get leaked.
An audio recording of one of the actors being a little bitch gets leaked.
And the icing on the cake would be the film being leaked.
Yet I still think WikiLeaks rules!!!
1. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by Opportunist · 2011-01-23 07:20 · Score: 2
  
  In other words, it will be available from torrents before the movie premiere. And how is that different from the way it usually is?
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
2. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by Moryath · 2011-01-23 08:48 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Interesting.
  I'm sure that this movie will have just about as much to do with real life as any "made for TV movie" ever has.
  Of course, after the way Wikileaks shifted from simply releasing data, to massively editorializing and chopping things up to suit their own slant (especially that horribly butchered video), they basically have no credibility left anyways.
3. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by JamesP · 2011-01-23 09:20 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  The real question is: Who's going to play Julian Assange's hair?!
  
  --
  how long until /. fixes commenting on Chrome?
4. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by Nazlfrag · 2011-01-23 15:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Yeah, that butchered video they released at the exact same time as they released the full, unedited, uncut video really ruined their reputation by making them suddenly world famous instead of an obscure site that only nerds like us knew anything about. Get a grip.
5. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by cold+fjord · 2011-01-23 15:29 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Butchered? Civilians, children and reporters butchered with hollow point bullets, you're fine with that. Showing the world it's happening, you call that butchery.
  Let me guess.... "collateral murder"?
  The "civilians" were armed insurgents, apparently associated with running firefights and rocket attacks through the night. They were also probably in violation of curfew, which would once again make them targets. (You noticed how empty the streets were, right?)
  The children should have been left behind by the insurgents attempting to rescue their comrades.
  By accompanying the insurgents, and without marking themselves, the reporters made themselves targets. They weren't attacked because they were reporters. That was a risk they took upon themselves when they decided to accompany violent extremists fighting against the Iraqi government.
  The lot of them were apparently engaged with the apache's 30mm automatic cannon. The military doesn't use hollow point bullets (Geneva & Hague Conventions, and all that).
  2 Iraqi Journalists Killed as U.S. Forces Clash With Militias
  
  Clashes in a southeastern neighborhood here between the American military and Shiite militias on Thursday left at least 16 people dead, including two Reuters journalists who had driven to the area to cover the turbulence, according to an official at the Interior Ministry....
  The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people had been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. The American troops called in reinforcements and attack helicopters. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed.
  ''There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,'' said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad.
  
  Butchery? No. If you want to know true butchery, look at Al Qaeda's attack on the Yezidi.
  
  A U.S. air strike killed a senior al Qaeda militant who masterminded truck bombings on Iraq's minority Yazidi community last month that killed more than 400 people, the military said on Sunday.
  "On September 3, a coalition air strike killed the terrorist responsible for the planning and conducting of the horrific attack against the Yazidis in northern Iraq on August 14," military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told a news conference.
  Iraq's government has put the death toll at 411 from the suicide bombings, although the Iraqi Red Crescent has said it could be more than 500. The bombings in the villages of Kahtaniya and al-Jazeera were the deadliest militant attacks in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
  A U.S. military statement named the mastermind as Abu Mohammad al-Afri, adding he was the al Qaeda "emir", or prince, in the area where the bombings took place.
  
  Or Al Qaeda's attacks on markets: Al Qaeda use two Down's syndrome women to blow up 99 people in Baghdad markets
  Do you have any words for Al Qaeda's actions? Genocidal might fit, as they want to rub out the Yezidi as a people & belief system. What about the attack on the market?
  
  --
  much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
6. Re:I hope the script gets leaked by Scrameustache · 2011-01-24 12:42 · Score: 2
  
  Butchered? Civilians, children and reporters butchered with hollow point bullets, you're fine with that. Showing the world it's happening, you call that butchery.
  Let me guess.... "collateral murder"?
  The "civilians" were armed insurgents, apparently associated with running firefights and rocket attacks through the night. They were also probably in violation of curfew, which would once again make them targets. (You noticed how empty the streets were, right?)
  The children should have been left behind by the insurgents attempting to rescue their comrades.
  No: Innocent bystanders and journalists. You don't get to just label anyone "insurgent" to justify shooting them.
  That car was there because he was bringing the children home from school, he saw people who were injured and stopped to help them, and he and the children were shot. By cowards hiding faraway, shooting armor-piercing explosive shells.
  Yeah, those are forbidden to use against people, making this a clear war crime.
  
  --
  You can't take the sky from me...
When he comes...all Hell breaks loose by RDW · 2011-01-23 04:40 · Score: 4, Funny

Presumably it's a 're-imagining' of this:
http://www.astrodispatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/10/9725f_warlock-the-armageddon-205x300.jpg
astounding ! by Dolphinzilla · 2011-01-23 04:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

And you guys thought Julian had a big ego before - honestly, the only way I'd ever waste a dime on this movie would be if Jim Carey played the lead role, and they did it as a comedy
so ? by unity100 · 2011-01-23 04:46 · Score: 3, Insightful

a lot of people in history had big egos, yet you still are using what breakthroughs and changes they have brought to this civilization without any issues.

or, you though that all the prominent historical figures that have provided anything of value to the society took after mother theresa ...

are you sure that, its not someone else's ego, but your own, getting irritated with someone else's ?

--
Read radical news here
1. Re:so ? by Darkness404 · 2011-01-23 05:11 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Except for the fact that Assange isn't some great revolutionary. Yes, we can admire the fact that he started it, but that was it. He started it. He didn't leak documents. While Assange is important and is to be commended for starting such a site, he seems to get all the credit which he doesn't deserve. The real revolutionaries are those who leaked things like the Iraq War documents, the "collateral murder" video, the diplomatic cables, etc. all Assange did was host them, which, while noble, doesn't make him a revolutionary.
  
  --
  Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
2. Re:so ? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-01-23 06:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  revolutionary - A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour.
  So not only is Assange a revolutionary person, he allowed other revolutionary people (who possibly wouldn't have been courageous enough to do it without him) when he started wikileaks...which is also revolutionary.
3. Re:so ? by unity100 · 2011-01-23 06:47 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Thanks for making a totalitarian rule that much easier, wikileaks?
  no, thank to you, the fool, for making totalitarian rule real behind a 'free' storefront, with your 'let the sleeping lords lie' mindset. thinking that if there wasnt wikileaks, the sources which are trying to censor and repress were not going to do it. they started it in 2002, the acta proceedings. they brought the 2006 anti-net neutrality attack, they brought coica long ago.
  
  yet, morons like you still trying to blame wikileaks for censorship. boy. its easy when you pay zero attention to what's happening in the world, apart from headlines you get served.
  
  as for what is being changed in civilization, its in the process of being changed. it is a move towards transparency and truth, which was promised with a straight face and then ignored by almost all politicians. anyone befouling a cause for transparency and truth, regardless of how it is being handled, is a moron that deserves being herded. 'let the sleeping lords lie' indeed ...
  
  --
  Read radical news here
4. Re:so ? by Jarik_Tentsu · 2011-01-23 12:07 · Score: 2
  
  That's like saying, it wasn't Lenin that was the great revolutionary, it was all the little Bolshevik soldiers and members who rose up and struck down Kerensky's provisional government.
  Yes, those people who did the actual leaks are significant figures, but you need someone to start it. That's what Assange did - he created a medium to release leaks, encouraged more and more whistleblowers and released in the information in a way to gain maximum publicity and exposure. There's a level of leadership involved in that - and to some extent, it's those figureheads that are needed in any sort of revolutionary movement.
Are Wikileaks actually making anything? by a+Flatbed+Darkly · 2011-01-23 04:54 · Score: 5, Interesting

They're claiming the film rights from an unofficial biographer who, as far as I have heard, did not pay Assange or Wikileaks royalties, and only according to rumour paid them a one-time payment - in short, a biographer who may have paid Assange nothing. They're not claiming the film rights from Assange, or from Wikileaks, or from the Sunshine Press, or from any associated organization or person. Unless Assange or Wikileaks step in, they won't be making a penny and we'll have one more shitty current-events movie.
1. Re:Are Wikileaks actually making anything? by a+Flatbed+Darkly · 2011-01-23 05:00 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  In addition, as Assange's lawyer earlier condemned the biographies, and no one has their lawyer condemn things that they'll be profiting from, we have it near enough confirmed that, like Wikileaks or Assange or not, no money from this is going anywhere near them.
Re:What a... by gmuslera · 2011-01-23 04:56 · Score: 2, Insightful

You mean, like the Facebook movie?
License to Leak by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2011-01-23 05:03 · Score: 4, Funny

'The Most Dangerous Man in the World' ?
"My name is Assange. Julian Assange. I have a license to leak."
In the film he gets not one, but two Bond, oh, I mean two Assange girls. But then they accuse him of rape, and the film's plot goes downhill from there.

--
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
1. Re:License to Leak by Dolphinzilla · 2011-01-23 05:41 · Score: 2
  
  Wasn't "leaking" part of the problem with said Assange girls ?
This is the movie we should have had last year... by damn_registrars · 2011-01-23 05:07 · Score: 5, Interesting

Instead of a movie about a wealthy kid making absurd amounts of money by selling snake oil. I love that the MSM became so enamored with facebook that Time magazine named facebook kid "person of the year" in spite of the fact that Julian Assange had 10 times the number of votes.

--
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Oblig: by houghi · 2011-01-23 05:35 · Score: 2

http://houghi.org/Fun/4L3O6E9.jpg

--
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
1. Re:Oblig: by McTickles · 2011-01-23 05:40 · Score: 2
  
  Offtopic:
  That jew suckerberg... ALL MY HATE... Him and his little "Facebook" script can suck my cock.
bad idea by initialE · 2011-01-23 05:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

Whatever happened to waiting until the story is over to tell the tale? History used to be written by the winners, not by the ones vested in getting their opinion turned into the "correct" one.

--
Starbucks, Harbuckle of Breath.
Assange'e ego by FrankHS · 2011-01-23 05:51 · Score: 5, Insightful

I have heard a lot of people say that Assange has a big ego, is a narcissist etc. But when I actually listen to him speak he strikes me as a level headed guy.
Why do so many people think he has a big ego?
1. Re:Assange'e ego by countertrolling · 2011-01-23 06:45 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Why do so many people think he has a big ego?
  That's the press talking. If he doesn't grant an interview, they get all pissed off and start making shit up to try to make him come out and deny, or whatever. Old trick.
  
  --
  For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
2. Re:Assange'e ego by ewe2 · 2011-01-23 07:43 · Score: 2
  
  He won't play their game. Not playing the game is bad, mkay.
  
  --
  insecurity asks the wrong question irritation gives the wrong answer
3. Re:Assange'e ego by ScentCone · 2011-01-23 11:30 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  But when I actually listen to him speak he strikes me as a level headed guy.
  
  Don't listen to what he says (or how he says it). Watch what he does (and doesn't do). Note the number of former associates/co-workers who've shared his stated purpose but found themselves highly annoyed by his condescending behavior towards them. Note his comments about how the papers he's giving the stolen documents to have to release them according to his plans, because "he owns them." He's all about him.
  
  --
  Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Re:What a... by TimeOut42 · 2011-01-23 06:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

Exactly like the facebook movie....
The script ... by PPH · 2011-01-23 06:05 · Score: 4, Funny

... is already up. Posted on the State department's web site.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
Re:Julian Assange by c6gunner · 2011-01-23 06:32 · Score: 4, Funny

Can't wait for the sex-scene!
he isnt is it. by unity100 · 2011-01-23 06:44 · Score: 2

Except for the fact that Assange isn't some great revolutionary.

at their time, a lot of the revolutionaries were being dubbed with adjectives which wouldnt even compare to this 'ego' business. not to mention that, a minority of them were considered revolutionaries until a few centuries later, when history was written.

moreover, the 'real revolutionaries' are the ones which leaked those videos, right. then answer me, why there were no such real revolutionaries, up till wikileaks, until someone provided those revolutionaries with the means to be a revolutionary ?

--
Read radical news here
yes by unity100 · 2011-01-23 07:16 · Score: 2

and tell us what did cryptome accomplish. tell me one single thing, that cryptome has been able to carry into world news at prime time.

ah also

http://bsd.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1910704&cid=34556662

maybe this is the reason ?

--
Read radical news here
Tobermory Effect by phobos13013 · 2011-01-23 07:33 · Score: 2

Let be honest folks, this is just the next step in the information war. It has nothing to do with telling the "real" story or giving us any understanding of the issues wikileaks revealed. Instead it is just an attempt to make a circus sideshow out of a non-issue. Meanwhile the foot soldiers throw their potshots as evidenced on the replys at slashdot and around the web. Worse yet, if it becomes a box office bomb (which i easily envision) it becomes a "who cares about assange" issue. The free-market will have spoken on what is more important in the information war....

--
...and it should be known by now
Re:What a... by TimeOut42 · 2011-01-23 08:37 · Score: 2

Yep, that's the piece of garbage I'm referring to.
Re:Wow... by Scrameustache · 2011-01-23 10:58 · Score: 2

We already knew that fact. This is just more proof for the giant pile.
This isn't proof of anything you dumb sheep! HE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS, you idiot.

--
You can't take the sky from me...
Insightful? by Nicolas+MONNET · 2011-01-24 02:08 · Score: 2

That's neocon propaganda. That's not insightful.