Benedict Cumberbatch Goes Blond To Play Julian Assange in 'The Fifth Estate'

by UInterviewJanuary 23, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Benedict Cumberbatch is rocking a bleach-blond hairdo for his role as the highly controversial journalist Julian Assange in the movie The Fifth Estate. Assange has faced extensive legal troubles stemming from his site WikiLeaks, which is responsible for leaking classified information, including military materials.

Standing next to Cumberbatch’s Assange is Daniel Bruhl, who plays Assange’s colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The screenplay, written by Josh Singer, draws from Domscheit-Berg’s book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World’s Most Dangerous Website and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, by David Leigh and Luke Harding, The Guardian reports.

The Fifth Estate, directed by Bill Condon (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) also stars Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie and David Thewlis. The movie began filming on Tuesday and will be released on Nov. 15, according to E!.

Cumberbatch, however, will be all over the small and silver screen between now and then. The Sherlock star will appear in J.J. Abram’s Star Trek Into Darkness, as well as Twelve Years a Slave, starring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender, August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. The BBC miniseries Parade’s End, featuring Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall and Adelaide Clemens, will also air on HBO starting in February. —Hal Sundt