Julian Assange Benedict Cumberbatch Letter: WikiLeaks Founder Slams The Fifth Estate Movie As ‘Wretched’; Will Controversy Boost Box Office?

Julian Assange’s letter to Benedict Cumberbatch was released by WikiLeaks on Wednesday, two days before the release of The Fifth Estate.

The letter dated January 15, 2013 was Assange’s response to Cumberbatch’s request to meet the WikiLeaks founder, in connection with the movie.

Benedict Cumberbatch is playing Julian Assange in the Dreamworks production film The Fifth Estate. The film will release in UK on October 11, 2013 and a week later in US.

Though the letter and its contents were not exactly a secret, the release of full letter by WikiLeaks has caused quite a stir.

The timing of release of ‘First Letter from Julian Assange to Benedict Cumberbatch Over The Fifth Estate’ could help the film in garner handsome box office collections. The movie received a long standing ovation at Toronto Film Festival where it premiered.

Assange calls The Fifth Estate as a ‘wretched’ film with ‘debauched’ script, ‘a project that vilifies and marginalizes a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state.’

He implored Cumberbatch at-length to re-consider his association with the film, claiming that he is just being used ‘as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it.

To present me(Julian Assange) as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth.’

In an interview to Australian Associated Press before the movie’s premiere at Toronto Film Festival , 42 year old Assange had said that there was a possibility that the movie could popularize WikiLeaks further; however, ‘people need to understand that this is a Hollywood movie and it has sections which are fictitious in order to increase the drama,’ he added.

Julian Assange has taken refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in UK. The UK government refuses to lend him a safe passage to Australia, insisting that Assange be extradited to Sweden where he is facing sexual harassment charges.