Wikileaks Movie Casts 'Inglourious Basterds' Star to Replace James McAvoy (Exclusive)

German actor Daniel Bruhl has finalized a deal to star alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in DreamWorks’ untitled Wikileaks movie being directed by Bill Condon.

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James McAvoy had been in negotiations for the role but talks broke down over scheduling regarding the actor's commitment to Fox's X-Men: Days of Future Past. DreamWorks has fast-tracked its movie and is eyeing a shoot in January.

Bruhl will now play Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who wrote Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website (and whose rights DW picked up as well as those of David Leigh and Luke Harding’s book, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War On Secrecy, to form the basis of the feature project).

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Cumberbatch is playing Assange, Wikileaks' founder, with Bruhl as his right-hand man, the German tech activist who became the organization’s spokesman. His split with Assange was credited as being one of the events leading to the massive diplomatic cable leak in September 2011 (251,287 United States diplomatic documents were published) and Assange’s eventual downfall.

Despite reports, Laura Linney is not in negotiations nor has an offer to join the cast although there is interest in her to play a State Department official.

Josh Singer wrote the script for the project, which is being produced by Anonymous Content’s Steve Golin and Michael Sugar.

Bruhl is a star in his native Germany and is best known to American audiences for his key role in Inglourious Basterds in which he played the Nazi war hero who falls for the theater manager played by Melanie Laurent.

He is repped by WME and Germany’s Players Agency.