11 October 2013
The Fifth Estate, the film based of the WikiLeaks story with Benedict Cumberbatch starring as Julian Assange, has had a stinging review from, er, Julian Assange, who called it “a geriatric snoozefest that only the US government could love”.
But Alexander Gibney, who directed the documentary We Steal Secrets, says Cumberbatch faced a very difficult task. “I thought Benedict did a wonderful job of capturing one side of Assange’s character: the brash, self-obsessed mendacious bloviator we still see giving Evita-like speeches from the balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy,” he told the Londoner. “Cumberbatch’s portrait was brilliant; but he was no Julian Assange.”
That will be some relief to the Cumberbitches.
