First image from WikiLeaks drama, The Fifth Estate

Directed by Bill Condon (Dream Girls, Twilight: Breaking Dawn), principal photography began today on The Fifth Estate, focusing on Julian Assange, founder of controversial website WikiLeaks, the site's early days, and the media explosion following the sites publishing of confidential government documents.

Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Assange, with Daniel Brühl as WikiLeaks co-founder Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and the movie will shed light on their relationship, and how the website became an overnight success, offering unprecedented access to government information for news media and the world at large. The film also stars Peter Capaldi (no stranger to this sort of thing after playing Malcom Tucker in the brillant t.v. show The Thick Of It), Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and David Thewlis. To mark the the start of production, Dreamworks have released the first picture from the project, featuring Comberbatch and Brühl.