Benedict Cumberbatch has been confirmed to play Julian Assange in a new biopic about the controversial Wikileaks founder.

Directed by Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) the film is set to be based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg’ book “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World’s Most Dangerous Website” along with “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War On Secrecy” by reporters David Leigh and Luke Harding.

James McAvoy (who previously worked with Benedict on Starter for Ten) is in talks to play Daniel Domschelt-Berg. The unnamed film will shoot next year.

In other news today saw the event The Game is On – An Afternoon with Mark Gatiss and friends at the Criterion Theatre. Whilst Benedict sadly couldn’t be in attendance (as he has just finished filming August:Osage County) many of Benedict’s other Sherlock cast members were at the event including Rupert Graves, Louise Brealey and John Watson himself, Martin Freeman.

You can read our write up of the event here.