Fifth Estate First Look Image - H 2013
Participant Media has signed on to co-finance DreamWorks’ upcoming WikiLeaks picture, The Fifth Estate.
The move comes on the heels of the two companies’ collaboration on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, nominated for 12 Academy Awards. Participant and DreamWorks also teamed up on The Help, The Kite Runner and The Soloist.
Participant is no stranger to hot-button topics like WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whose life will be the subject of the film. The company, which won an Oscar for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth, is about to go into production on a Cold War-era film about President Reagan called Reykjvik, starring Michael Douglas as Reagan and Christoph Waltz as Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
Fifth Estate, which began shooting Jan. 22, stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange and Daniel Bruhl as Daniel Domscheit-Berg as well as Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Dan Stevens, Alicia Vikander and Carice van Houten. Bill Condon directs from a Josh Singer screenplay.
The film will open in U.S. theaters Nov. 15 and be distributed by Disney’s Touchstone label. Distribution internationally will be split among Disney, DreamWorks partner Reliance and deals made through the studio’s partnership with Mister Smith Entertainment.
Email: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com, Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27
