THE FIFTH ESTATE chronicles the rise and fall of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who exposed numerous secret materials from the U.S. government as well as documents from all over the world that have seemingly caused an international manhunt for the controversial figure (who now has diplomatic asylum). The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the reclusive hacker, along with supporting castmembers Daniel Brühl, Peter Capaldi, Laura Linney, Game of Throne's Carice van Houten, Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci, and David Thewlis. Today, we have a look at the new poster for the film and a smattering of images.
Take a look:
Here's the synopsis:
The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistle-blowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world's most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society-and what are the costs of exposing them?
I have my own personal feelings on Assange, but judging the prospects of the film by the cast alone is certainly reason for interest. Certainly, you want to see a balanced story, but I wonder if Assange is almost too controversial to even accomplish that. It will be tough to crack this story with so much already said about it in the news, web, and from the actual people involved. Ironically, finding the truth in all of this will be the hardest thing for the film to accomplish. Perhaps that will work the most in its favor.
THE FIFTH ESTATE is slated to spill its secrets on October 18, 2013.