Julian Assange is about to get the Mark Zuckerberg treatment. The upcoming biography “The Most Dangerous Man In The World” by journalist Andrew Fowler has been optioned by Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krum Productions with the intent to turn Assange’s life story into a “suspenseful drama thriller”, though Variety only places “thriller” behind quotation marks, suggesting there’s merit in a strike-while-the-iron-is-hot movie about a hot topic story that hasn’t fully played out, as long as it’s a drama. Or “drama.”
Assange, who the American public somehow vilifies more than any hate-speech spewing retard on right wing radio, founded WikiLeaks in 2006, using the method of information dissemination to inform American citizens about such needed facts as the duplicitous actions of the government in their dealings with Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange is considered a traitor by many for revealing secrets about the government’s more questionable dealings, and is under house arrest in England due to serious sexual abuse allegations stemming from a Swedish arrest warrant.
“As soon as I met Andrew and read a few chapters of his profound book,” producer Michelle Krumm says, “I knew that – with his incredibly extensive depth of knowledge – it would enable us to bring a thought-provoking thriller to the screen.” But good luck on finding any cooperation in telling such a hot-button story, with real-life elements that remain in dispute. Though producer Barry Josephson (“Bones“) believes this story could be an “All The President’s Men” analog, are you going to find a major studio willing to take on divisive material that lionizes a man a large portion of the American public (stupidly) wants to see hanged?
And are you going to be able to tell the story of Pvt. Bradley Manning, the soldier who allegedly released confidential military documents to WikiLeaks and is currently being held by authorities in Quantico? The same Pvt. Manning who have yet to be properly charged with anything, and is therefore illegally imprisoned by the US government under solitary confinement? Yeah, we don’t see that ending up in the movie either. No word yet on casting but might we humbly suggest Bill Hader?