Hero, martyr, villain or just an Aussie guy with really unusual hair, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is one of the era's most polarising figures. With the maverick hacker still taking refuge in London's Ecuadorian embassy, and his story seemingly having a distance yet to travel, it seems premature for a biopic, but that's exactly what The Fifth Estate is providing. The drama has a new trailer, available below, establishing the story.
Rather than an origin story for Assange or a cloak-and-dagger thriller set among the zeroes and ones of the hacking community, The Fifth Estate sensibly ties both strands into a tale of fraying friendship.
The bond between Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his closest confederates, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl), buckles and then breaks under the strain of global scrutiny and power politicking. All the Cumberbitches/-people out there - hello! - will be reassured that their man seems to have nailed the cadence of Assange's Queensland accent.
The pair of leads are in good company on screen, with Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten lending support. With **Kinsey **man Bill Condon behind the camera, The Fifth Estate is out on January 1, 2014.