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It’s a grand tale of truth, lies and whistleblowing. The Fifth Estate, dramatising the WikiLeaks affair, opens the Toronto Film Festival next Thursday, before hitting UK cinemas in October — just in time for Oscar selection. If you can’t wait until then, here’s our leaked document on what to expect.

The story so far

A tense, epic adventure of one pale man’s fight for truth, against an Establishment that will do anything to stop him — and that’s just the battle for the film rights. Back in March 2011, Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks juggernaut acquired the rights to two books about Julian Assange — Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World’s Most Dangerous Website, as well as WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy by Guardian journalists Luke Harding and David Leigh, who allowed Assange to hide from the CIA in his house.

Both books provide a frank view of the flawed genius of Assange, as seen by those close to him. The one by computer scientist and former WikiLeaks right-hand man Domscheit-Berg is a tale of unrequited love. From their first meeting, the author thought the silver-haired one was a “cool guy”, because of his olive-green cargo pants. They were close for three years until Domscheit-Berg left in 2010, exhausted and embittered by the stress of working with the man whom he admired but found impossible.

The other book is very much a Guardian newspaper production, and tells the story of the release of 250,000 secret diplomatic cables and classified files from the Afghan and Iraq wars. The Guardian’s once-close relationship with Assange became positively chilly after the paper reported details of sexual assault allegations against him in 2010, so expect the film to include a detailed exposé of the website’s early days.

The making of...

This is a big, glossy DreamWorks production. The screenwriter is American Josh Singer, 41, of The West Wing fame. Director Bill Condon, who was responsible for Dreamgirls and The Twilight Saga, says he’s not taking any specific angle: “We want to enliven and enrich the conversations WikiLeaks has already provoked.” It’s been shot in Iceland, Berlin and Belgium (where it was eligible for a tax break) on an undisclosed budget (there have been no leaks but industry sources estimate it at £20 million).

The heroes and villains

“Downton” Dan Stevens gets the dark hair dye treatment to play Guardian news editor Ian Katz, but the real transformation is Benedict Cumberbatch, who gets wiggy with it. Fans of Sherlock will be astonished when they see their pin-up transformed into Assange, complete with a thatch of peroxide blonde hair and urban-warrior, geek-chic outfits.

When Cumberbatch asked Assange if he could meet him in the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange refused, “because I didn’t want to legitimise the film”, but even he isn’t immune to the legendary Cumberbatch charm. Assange says: “Benedict Cumberbatch is personally supportive,” and they are said to exchange emails regularly. According to a source: “Assange now thinks Benedict better understands his actions and motivations.”

Cumberbatch has called it “a great privilege to portray the guy — a really incredibly complex human being. WikiLeaks is an extraordinary evolution in media.”

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger will be played by the new Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi. Rusbridger approves and has said: “Peter Capaldi is, I can report, a very plausible Guardian editor.” Will Capaldi do for Rusbridger what Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman did for Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein?

Totty comes in the form of Alicia Vikander as Anke, the wife of Domscheit-Berg (Daniel “Goodbye Lenin” Bruhl). In the book he describes first seeing her: “I bit into my falafel and took stock of Anke through coleslaw and houmus. Cool woman. Fashionably dressed with a style of her own. Very confident. With a good sense of humour.” Laura Linney makes a strict schoolmarmish Sarah Shaw, the White House representative working with Assange’s arch nemesis.

The Assange backlash

As the biggest leaker du jour, Assange has naturally seen an advance copy of the draft script. And he’s not keen. “The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff,” he said, adding that it tells “lie upon lie”. Director Condon isn’t bothered, saying: “[Assange is] somebody who doesn’t really take well to presenting any other side.” A sensitive flower, then. When The Fifth Estate’s first trailer was released in early July, WikiLeaks tweeted to its nearly two million followers: “Don’t be fooled. It implies that we gave Iran nukes and killed 2,000.” What a shame Assange will probably still be in the Ecuadorian embassy for the premiere.

Director Oliver Stone has weighed in, saying the film is “going to be unfriendly ... I don’t think most people in the US realise how important WikiLeaks is and why Julian’s case needs support”. Miaow.

The ongoing story

Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since June last year as he fights extradition from Britain to Sweden. He wants to run in Australia’s September 7 election, which is cutting things fine.

Team Rusbridger this week launched theguardian.com in America, and continues to report on the latest leaks from new whistleblower Edward Snowden. Perhaps this time next year we’ll be looking at a sequel...