DIRECTOR STEVEN SPIELBERG appears to be planning a WikiLeaks movie after securing the rights to two books about the controversial website.

The Guardian reports that Spielberg’s studio Dreamworks has bought the screen rights to the book penned by two of its journalists, David Leigh and Luke Harding, about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Guardian News & Media editor Alan Rusbridger today spoke about the proposed film project, saying:

It’s Woodward and Bernstein meets Stieg Larsson meets Jason Bourne. Plus the odd moment of sheer farce and, in Julian Assange, a compelling character who goes beyond what any Hollywood scriptwriter would dare to invent.

Dreamworks also secured the screen rights to the book written by Assange’s former colleague, Daniel Domscheit-Berg.

WikiLeaks, however, seems unimpressed with the prospect of appearing on the silver screen.

Earlier it tweeted a link to the Guardian’s Spielberg story saying: “This is how bulls**t ends up being history: Spielberg lines up WikiLeaks film based on books by opportunists”.

The Guardian was among WikiLeak’s small number of media partners for the release of confidential US documents, but Assange’s relationship with the newspaper has seriously deteriorated in the past several weeks. Private Eye magazine recently published a report claiming Assange had accused “Jewish” journalists at the Guardian of subjecting him to negative media coverage.

Julian Assange is still fighting extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual abuse.

Read the story in full in the Guardian >