The-Fifth-EstateBenedict Cumberbatch has been going from strength to strength in recent years, making a name for himself with roles in Sherlock, Star Trek Into Darkness, and The Hobbit. Amongst the slew of movies on his slate before year’s end, many likely to be Oscar-bound, is The Fifth Estate, which is set to tell the story of the rise of WikiLeaks.

Cumberbatch takes the lead as Julian Assange himself, and is joined by a stellar cast led by Daniel Brühl as his colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. We’ve heard little from the movie since our first look back in January. But with its release date now in sight, the first trailer has surfaced, along with a handful of new images.

A dramatic thriller based on real events, THE FIFTH ESTATE reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization.

Triggering our age of high-stakes secrecy, explosive news leaks and the trafficking of classified information, WikiLeaks forever changed the game. Now, in a dramatic thriller based on real events, THE FIFTH ESTATE reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization. The story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. Soon, they are breaking more hard news than the world’s most legendary media organizations combined. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of our time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society—and what are the costs of exposing them?”

Cumberbatch and Brühl are joined by a stellar cast, led by Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, Stanley Tucci, Alicia Vikander, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Moritz Bleibtreu, Dan Stevens, and Carice van Houten.

Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn) is behind the camera, directing from a script by Josh Singer (The West Wing, Fringe), with Singer making his feature debut, adapting the books, Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website, by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, by Luke Harding and David Leigh.

The Fifth Estate is set for release in the US on October 11th, with its UK release date set a little later for 1st January, 2014, putting it in perfect position for a run at the Oscars, the BAFTAs, and everything else on the awards calendar.

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