Joel Silver, will you please take our call?
You should because the 250,000 classified U.S. diplomatic cables WikiLeaks released Sunday are something out of a great movie. It's "Rain Man" meets "Enemy of the State" and "Sherlock Holmes" with a bit of "Bridget Jones." It's even got a great hero/anti-hero in the whistle blowing website’s Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange.
So to score a nice producer's fee just in time for Christmas, we thought we'd give you the pitch now:
TITLE: "Full Disclosure."
TAG LINE: This Summer, the Truth Will Set You Free
RELEASE DATE: July 4, 2011
PLOT SUMMARY: "Hunted by governments around the globe, a lone internet insurgent wages a war for truth and peace. Controlled by a mysterious benefactors, assisted by a rag-tag band of high-tech pals and moles, suave Julian Assange fights to keep his servers running, his sources safe, stop World War III from breaking out … and fall in love with the woman who wants him dead.
CAST:
Vincent Cassel as Julian Assange — You might remember the French actor as George Clooney’s nemesis in "Ocean's Twelve," you'll see him in "Black Swan" with Natalie Portman and, if you've got about five hours for some stellar filmmaking, you really should see him in the two-part "Mesrine.” Sure, "Boardwalk Empire's" Steve Buscemi and Michael Pitt would be good, and Robert Downey Jr. would be great in the role, but if Cassel can get Assange's Australian accent down, he's the man to beat.
Hope Davis as Hilary Clinton — She's played the present Secretary of State and former First Lady before in HBO's "The Special Relationship," but as our leading lady trying to whack-a-mole the hundreds of thousands of U.S. secret diplomatic and military documents WikiLeaks has revealed, Davis can really show some range as she struggles with her duty and her heart. When she and Cassel finally meet up in the end in the Lincoln Memorial — sparks will fly as they battle to the death, declare their love and fight their true foe.
Tracy Morgan as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — In many ways, the Iranian President, or at least his nuclear program, is at the heart of the recent massive WikiLeaks diplomatic document dump. It seems like stopping or sanctioning the Islamic Republic was all anyone was talking about the last three years, the time covered by the cables WikiLeaks released. Well, that and what a buffoon they thought Ahmadinejad is … and who better to play a buffoon than "30 Rock's" leading loose cannon Tracy Jordan?
Kevin Connelly as Bradley Manning –– He's the best pal on HBO's "Entourage," but Connelly has the fresh face and the innocent look to pull off the Private First Class U.S. Army soldier whose widely fingered as the one whose been passing the most of the secretive American data to WikiLeaks. Breaking out the Intelligence analyst, presently in solitary confinement at Quantico, could be a great start to the vital 3rd act of the movie.
Chris Cooper as Bill Keller — Playing the Executive Editor of the New York Times could clinch another Oscar for the great character actor. Sensing a Pentagon Papers for his time, Keller came out front defending the Paper of Record's decision to go large with the government's secrets. Can't you just hear Cooper's drawn out voice over of "We get to decide (to cover the documents) because America is cursed with a free press," a line from Keller's in-print explanation of why the paper published the secret cables, after a long night agonizing over the choice? Actors love that stuff … so do audiences.
