Sundance 2011: Universal Purchases WikiLeaks Documentary

Universal Pictures has picked up a documentary from Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The film will be the first project involving Marc Shmuger since he left the chairman post at Universal. Shmuger and Gibney are producing. Shmuger is expected to reemerge as a producer at Universal.

Gibney has directed such films as Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, and Casino Jack and the United States of Money. Gibney typically uses input from his subjects of his documentaries. This sparks the question of whether or not Assange will be cooperating?

Universal confirmed the deal but did not go into details on the project. As you can expect, there are a number of book and picture deals surrounding the WikiLeaks founder. This deal comes right on the heels of a deal announced yesterday by feature producers who optioned an upcoming book. Assange himself has a book deal in the works to pay for his mounting legal fees. The documentary from Gibney/Shmurger is the first film involving a major studio.

Since launching his WikiLeaks in 2006, Assange has revealed some of the most serious secret government documents since The New York Times published The Pentagon Papers. They range from footage of an Apache helicopter's firing fatally on journalists and civilians in Baghdad to last November's deluge of diplomatic cables that left the U.S. government red-faced and outraged. Assange is currently the subject of sex assault rap allegations which he claims are false and politically motivated.

I have never actually been on WikiLeaks, nor do I have any interest in doing so. Assange seems like a loose cannon, so a documentary about him may be of interest. What are your thoughts of this news?