'Anna Karenina' Star Alicia Vikander Joins Bill Condon's WikiLeaks Movie With Benedict Cumberbatch

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by Kevin Jagernauth
December 14, 2012 5:41 PM
6 Comments

As we put together our list of Breakout Performances Of 2012, Alicia Vikander was someone who turned heads around The Playlist office. The actress put in two great turns this year, first as Caroline, who becomes embroiled in an illicit romance in "A Royal Affair." She next appeared as Kitty in Joe Wright's lush "Anna Karenina," and as we wrote about Vikander's performance, "Your heart breaks for Anna but you fall in love with Kitty." Well, it hasn't taken long for Hollywood to make use of her talent.

The Swedish actress has been cast in the still-untitled WikiLeaks/Julian Assange movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Bruhl and directed by Bill Condon. Based on the books "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World's Most Dangerous Website" and "WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War On Secrecy," and penned by Josh Singer ("The West Wing," "Fringe"), the film will present Assange as a whistleblower who apparently let power get to his head and let the ethics of his work slide, much to the chagrin of his right hand man Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Bruhl). Vikander will play Bruhl's co-worker and love interest.

We hope she gets more to do than just hang off Bruhl's arm, but at the very least, this will put her on a lot more casting radars, which is not a bad thing at all. Production on the movie starts next year, and can we give this thing a name already? [Variety]

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More: Alicia Vikander, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bill Condon

6 Comments

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Arbed | December 15, 2012 6:56 AMReply

If she's sensible she'll do some background research on Daniel Domscheit-Berg before signing her contract. Apparently, Wikileaks has already suggested a title for this movie. They're calling it Dreamworks' ANTI-Wikileaks movie. Hmm. Not a good sign.

Maybe that's because Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book, which this film will be based on, is full of self-promoting - but easily spottable - lies. According to Der Spiegel, Domscheit-Berg is also heavily involved in the film's production as a consultant.

This is the man who sabotaged the Wikileaks submission platform, stole money and unpublished whistleblower submissions from them, conducted endless interviews smearing Julian Assange, publicised where the passphrase to the unredacted cableset could be found (David Leigh, Guardian journalist's book chapter title!!!) and, to cap it all, DESTROYED 3,500 unpublished document that whistleblowers had submitted to Wikileaks, risking all to get the truth out to the public.

Doubtless this is the man who this film will portray as the noble hero of information transparency, while Assange is portrayed as an narcisist and meglomaniac. The truth turned upsidedown.
XiuXiu | December 14, 2012 10:30 PMReply

She is wonderful in Anna Karenina
Mark | December 15, 2012 6:25 PM

Yep. My favorite part of the film easily. The important scene with the blocks would go down as one of my top 10 scenes of the year.
ADJA | December 14, 2012 10:29 PMReply

Vikander is beautiful
Markunator | December 15, 2012 4:05 AM

SO very beautiful! :)
Val5 | December 14, 2012 5:57 PMReply

happy to see her get new projects! she's great.