FORGET Meryl Streep wailing "a dingo stole my baby!"

In the new movie The Fifth Estate, British actor Benedict Cumberbatch has not only nailed the Australian accent, but the voice of infamous Aussie Julian Assange.

The first trailer for the film, directed by Bill Condon, has been released. It charts the rise of Wikileaks from shoestring operation to the US Government's enemy No.1. The Fifth Estate opens in Australia on November 7.

The real Assange could not be called a big movie fan - at least films in which he is the central subject. Assange did not participate in the recent documentary We Steal Secrets and has already called The Fifth Estate "a massive propaganda attack".

Cumberbatch (Star Trek Into Darkness and TV's Sherlock) told New York magazine that the hacktivist personally asked him not to do the film. But Cumberbatch argued, "Wouldn't you rather it's someone who has your ear, who could steer the film to a place that's more accurate or balanced?"

media_camera Daniel Brühl (left) and Benedict Cumberbatch star as Daniel Domscheit-Berg and Julian Assange in DreamWorks Pictures' .

Cumberbatch is certainly a supporter of the work Assange has done with Wikileaks, saying, "No matter how you cut it, he's done us a massive service, to wake us up to the zombielike way we absorb our news."

Pitched as a high-stakes and explosive thriller, The Fifth Estate co-stars German actor Daniel Bruhl as Assange's Wikileaks cohort Daniel Domscheit-Berg, as well as Stanley Tucci and Laura Linney.

media_camera (From left) Benedict Cumberbatch (Julian Assange), Carice van Houten (Birgitta Jónsdóttir), Daniel Brühl (Daniel Domscheit-Berg) and Moritz Bleibtreu (Marcus) star in DreamWorks Pictures' .

###

Originally published as Will the real Assange stand up?