WikiLeaks' most recent release may not reveal any government secrets, but it does set a new standard for the age-old term, "no hard feelings."
The controversial website published a letter Wednesday written by founder Julian Assange to actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who portrays Assange in the upcoming film, The Fifth Estate. The letter is dated Jan. 15, 2013, about a week before the film's production began, and it appears to be a response to Cumberbatch's request for an in-person meeting. While Assange is cordial to Cumberbatch, he ultimately denies the actor's request.
"I hope that you will take such directness as a mark of respect, and not as an unkindness," Assange wrote. "I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film."
The letter suggests Cumberbatch wanted to meet, so he could familiarize himself with Assange's mannerisms, to better portray him in the film. Assange wrote that he did not want to meet because he thought it would "validate" the film, which is "based on a deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organisation."
As Mashable's Contributing Editor Anita Li describes in her review of the film, The Fifth Estate is based largely on two books — Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website by former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding of the Guardian.
In his letter, Assange even suggested that Cumberbatch give up his role in The Fifth estate.
You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth.
Not because you want to, of course you don't, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched.
Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world.
I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise.
WikiLeaks published what it called a "mature version" of the film's script last month, along with a memo that cites all the reasons it thinks the film is "irresponsible, counterproductive and harmful."
Bill Condon, director of The Fifth Estate, told Mashable in an interview last month that the film is "in no way an attack on WikiLeaks," but rather "a celebration of WikiLeaks and what it set out to do." Cumberbatch reportedly clashed with Condon over how to best portray Assange.
Assange, who wrote that he is "fond of" Cumberbatch's work in the letter, was less kind in a later interview during which he calls the British Cumberbatch's attempt at an Australian accent "grating."
DreamWorks Studios, which produced the film, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Fifth Estate is scheduled to hit theaters in the U.K. this Friday, a week prior to its U.S. release date of Oct. 18.
Mashable Composite; images: Flickr, acidpolly and Sam
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