Griffith, LaPaglia To Star In Movie Of Wikileak Founder

The life of Wikileak founder Julian Assange is slated to be turned into a telemovie. Rachel Griffiths and Anthony LaPaglia are reported to star in the project.

The telemovie will focus on the early life of Julian Assange. Alex Williams will play the younger Assange. Griffiths will play Assange’s mother while LaPaglia will take on the role of a police officer who investigated Assange for Internet hacking.

The telemovie has a working title “Underground.” Rick Maier, Network Ten executive producer, Maier said the project will show who Assange is and his motivations. Robert Connolly will write and direct the movie with NBC Universal will be the global distributor.

Assange became one of the most controversial figures for his website Wikileaks. The site regularly publishes confidential government communications and documents. These files are suspected to be leaked to the site by government sources and anonymous whistleblowers.

Wikileak was founded in 2006 with Assange acting as editor-in-chief and director. A year into its launch, it has amassed more than 1 million documents. Some of the most controversial leaks it published include footage from the 2007 Baghdad airstrike where journalists from Iraq were killed, the Afghan War Diary and Iraq War Logs.

Wikileaks has also published documents affecting other countries like Australia, Ireland, China, among others. In 2006, Wikileaks would have been blacklisted if the mandatory Internet filtering was implemented.

Last month, Wikileak’s Twitter account tweeted that Assange is planning to run for senate in the next federal election.

NBC Universal will be the global distributor for the telemovie. It will be shown on Ten later this year.

Tagged Anthony LaPaglia, Julian Assange, movies, Rachel Griffiths, WikiLeaks