Who Should Direct the Inevitable WikiLeaks Movie?
With the U.S. now trying to build a conspiracy case against Julian Assange and new stories about WikiLeaks gracing the front pages each day, it seems pretty safe to assume we'll be getting Hollywood's version of the story sometime in the not-too-distant future. Most likely, someone has already started writing the book and pre-sold the rights to a producer, who has in turn already hired a screenwriter to start adapting the unfinished novel. If not, then Hollywood needs to get it together! In any case, before the flood of short lists and casting rumors begins, let's take a look at five directors who seem perfect to take on this story.
(As always, feel free to contribute your own suggestions.)
·Roman Polanski
He just dabbled in leaked secrets and conspiracy with this year's excellent The Ghost Writer and he knows a thing or two about being wanted by the U.S. government and being used by the legal system as an example. Also, in terms of filmmaking, he's still going strong! Polanski could hit this one out of the park.
·Michael Mann
After Miami Vice and Public Enemies, it seems like a good time for Mann to take a break from the cops and robbers anti-action movies and try his hand at another high-octane procedural thriller like his underrated whistle-blower exposé The Insider.
·Michael Moore
He has already donated to Assange's defense and, muckraking aside, he's got a knack for making the in's and out's of legality and bureaucracy entertaining. The only condition: He should go old school and make this one a narrative.
·Paul Greengrass
The Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum director has done great work making compelling, often politically-minded thrillers that still retain the verité sensibility of his acclaimed documentaries like Bloody Sunday. That said, Assange is not allowed to get into any shaky-cam fights.
·David Fincher
I thought about leaving the director of The Social Network off the list just to see how much hell I would catch in the comments, but yes, here you go. Naturally, Aaron Sorkin should write the script.
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Comments
This is a really great piece that I would be very glad to see you follow-up on. Three Days of the Condor meets Sandra Bullock in The Net, absolutely recruit Emmanuel Goldstein and the gang from Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) that inspired Hackers, throw in the modern version of George Smiley (me, championing Open Source Intelligence) and then bring in Andrew Mason from Chicago with GroupOn being the logical endpoint of the revolution--self-governance at every level, doves in the skies, free infinite energy, world brain global game, it just gets better and better. I strongly urge you to have a global competition that collects ideas from everyone about how to use the movie to create a global movement that demands legal ethical voluntary transparency, or Open Everything (www.tinyurl.com/GNOME). We CAN create a world that works for all, we just have to end the corruption that contrives scarcity. NOW this is a no-brainer.
Doug Liman?
I don't know who should direct but Bill Hader should definitely star.
The best choice: Fincher. He specializes in telling the stories of off-kilter, but interesting obsessives. Who fits that profile better than Assange?
Other ideas:
Kathryn Bigelow -- Kind of a weird choice, but I think she could handle the tension of the actual leaking of the documents to wikileaks very well.
Oliver Stone -- It would probably be horrible. But this seems like exactly the kind of conspiracy rife tale that he would love to tackle.
I think Cate Blanchett should star.
Roman P - the perfect match
Jon Faverau's free...
Bill Nighy would make a much better Assange
What will interesting is when the producers do everything they can to keep the script getting leaked early on the web, and the studio working hard to prevent pirated copies of the film off websites.