Hollywood May Make a Movie About WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

Tim Grierson
·Editor
This is not one of the villains in 'The Dark Knight Rises' Oli Scarff/Getty Images
This is not one of the villains in 'The Dark Knight Rises' Oli Scarff/Getty Images

Hollywood has always had a love affair with the infamous, making biopics about gangsters and serial killers since the early 1930s. Julian Assange hasn't done anything quite so murderous -- he merely founded WikiLeaks, the online company that publishes top-secret government documents -- but it's made him a lightning rod for controversy for months now. So nobody should be surprised that film producers think the mysterious Assange could make for a good movie, optioning rights to a forthcoming biography of the 39-year-old Australian.

Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Productions are teaming up to adapt "The Most Dangerous Man in the World," journalist Andrew Fowler's book about Assange and his company that's due in the fall.

At first blush, it would seem that "Most Dangerous" could be another "Social Network": the story of a shadowy outsider who uses the Internet to become both powerful and feared. What would be interesting is that this sort of dark real-life drama isn't the sort of thing Josephson Entertainment has done thus far: They oversee the TV show "Bones" and have produced films like "Life As We Know It" and "Hide and Seek." It would seem to be producer Michelle Krumm's speed, though: She was an executive producer or co-executive producer on several true stories, including "All Good Things" and "Factory Girl."

While these producers were the first to land a possible Assange project, they may not be the first ones to get it in front of the cameras. Assange is working on his own memoir, and a former WikiLeaks spokesperson, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, is writing a tell-all called "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time at the World's Most Dangerous Website." ("Dangerous" appears to be the go-to buzz word in regards to Mr. Assange.) Many people around the globe would love to wring Assange's neck, but a lot of folks in Hollywood could be falling all over each other to tell his story.

"Assange Biopic Underway," Says Screen Junkies In A Confidential Cable [Screen Junkies]