Rowan Joffe to Write WikiLeaks Movie for HBO and BBC

Rowan Joffe (The American) has signed on to script a WikiLeaks movie co-produced by HBO and the BBC.  According to Variety, Joffe’s script will focus on “the story of the database run by former hacker and internet activist Julian Assange and his operatives, whose mission is to collect and disseminate via the Internet private, secret and classified information from anonymous sources.” After releasing thousands of sensitive government documents, Assange was at the center of a maelstrom of controversy and news coverage last year, in turn multiple feature projects.  Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) will produce one, Josephson Entertainment and Michelle Krumm Productions optioned an Assange biography in the works, and Alex Gibney (Casino Jack and the United States of Money) will direct a WikiLeaks documentary.  Charles Ferguson (Inside Job) is on board as director for the HBO/BBC project.

Joffe’s feature directorial debut, Brighton Rock, premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.  His most recent assignments are all adaptations: Before I Go to Sleep, Agent Zigzag, and Great Expectations.