Jeremy Renner Eyeing Lead In DreamWorks’ Julian Assange Project

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Project high on both potential and question marks.

I suppose it is a logical next step to adapt the life of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange into a feature film.  The man is perhaps the most reknowned full-time troublemaker on the planet today, and every legal twist and turn in his ongoing fight to keep his site live seems to capture the imagination of the public.  At the moment, Assange is sitting tight waiting to be tried for sexual assault on two women.  If he gets free of that legal nightmare scenario, he will have but the collective indignance of the United States intelligence establishment to deal with.

Last year, DreamWorks scooped up the rights to two definitive books on the controversial Assange, WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, and Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World’s Most Dangerous Website.  They serve as the basis for the screenplay which was written by Josh Singer, a veteran of TV’s Fringe and Lie to Me.

According to Deadline, it appears now that Jeremy Renner, flush from a string of successes that is likely to continue with the release of The Bourne Legacy on August 10th, is taking an active interest in starring as Assange.  A journeyman actor just five years ago, Renner has now worked himself into a position of being able to pick from the cream of the crop.  The project is certainly a high-profile pursuit for Renner.

The film certainly carries some elements of risk, as obviously one of the more crucial elements of Assange’s story, his prosecution and potential incarceration, remains to be determined.  Also, there are several other Assange-centric projects that are currently in the works.  It could be the one that captures the most up-to-date rendition of the story will be the one that garners the most interest from viewers.  Or it could be that by the time any of these projects come to fruition, Assange will be simply be yesterday’s news.

Still, the character of Assange is a complicated and fascinating one, and Renner, who has demonstrated impressive range starring in a relatively small number of projects, would be the envy of the acting community to land the role.