DreamWorks has taken on an ambitious project, the story of Wikileaks and its mysterious founder Julian Assange. The story of Wikileaks and Assange’s complex personality and status as a hero of freedom of information incessantly threatening governments and the establishment have apparently raised enough curiosity and enthusiasm to justify making a film about it.

While Benedict Cumberbatch (pictured; “Sherlock Holmes” in the British series) will take on the marquee role, James McAvoy (“X-Men” ) was originally approached to play the role of Assange’s right-arm man and spokesperson of the company, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, although he has had to abandon the project because of a scheduling conflict with the filming of the next “X-Men” movie. This is a boon for German actor Daniel Brühl (“Inglourious Basterds”), who has landed the role instead.

The film will be based on the 2011 book “WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy” authored by British journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding. It describes Julian Assange’s rise, the founding of WikiLeaks, and the alleged leak by Bradley Manning of classified material to the website in 2010. Bill Condon has been tapped to direct and Josh Singer (“The West Wing”) will pen the screenplay.

Principal photography is to begin this January 2013.