First Look: Benedict Cumberbatch As Julian Assange In 'The Fifth Estate'; Release Date And Additional Casting Revealed

Julian Assange has been hailed as a hero by some and decried as a villain by others, so it seems just about perfect that Bill Condon's WikiLeaks movie stars an actor who can play both. As principal photography on the film, now titled The Fifth Estate, gets underway, the first photo of Benedict Cumberbatch as the WikiLeaks founder and Daniel Brühl as his former right-hand man Daniel Domscheit-Berg has been revealed.

Meanwhile, the film has also rounded out its casting with Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi (In the Loop), and Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones). Dan Stevens and Alicia Vikander have been attached since earlier this winter. In addition, DreamWorks has finally confirmed a fall 2013 release date, putting the film squarely in the middle of prestige-pic season. Check out the photo and get all the new details after the jump.

Domscheit-Berg befriended Assange in 2007 and became WikiLeaks' spokesperson soon after, but departed the organization in 2010 after a nasty falling out. His tell-all book about his time there, titled Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website, is one of two source materials for The Fifth Estate. The other is WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War On Secrecy, by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.

DreamWorks announced in a press release today that The Fifth Estate will open November 15 of this year. Its only direct competition on that date so far is the untitled sequel to The Best Man, but Ender's Game and Thor: The Dark World are opening in the weeks before and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Frozen hit in the weeks after.