Hollywood movie studio Dream Works said that The Fifth Estate, starring British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange, will open in the US in November.

The film will trace the early days of Wikileaks through the eyes of Assange and his German former spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg (played by Daniel Brhl), culminating in the release in 2010 of thousands of damaging government documents and e-mails.

"It might be decades before we understand the full impact of Wikileaks and how it revolutionised the spread of information.

"So this film won't claim long-view authority on its subject, or attempt a final judgment," said Condon.

"We want to explore the complexities and challenges of transparency in the information age and, we hope, enliven and enrich the conversations Wikileaks has already provoked," added the director, whose past projects include Dreamgirls and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.

The movie screenplay is based on Domscheit-Berg's 2011 book Inside Wikileaks and a second book, Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy, by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding.

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for seven months to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning on allegations of sexual assault.

He has said that he fears extradition will lead to his being sent to a vengeful US, which is furious that Wikileaks leaked thousands of secret US diplomatic and military cables.