Assange writes letter to Benedict Cumberbatch slamming 'The Fifth Estate'

Julian Assange had written a letter to actor Benedict Cumberbatch, asking the actor to drop out of a film about Wikileaks.

The full text of an email from Assange to Cumberbatch, titled ominously "Message from Assange", was written in reply to Cumberbatch's request for a meeting in January.

The letter was released to show how Assange, refusing to meet Cumberbatch had attempted to derail the production of the The Fifth Estate.

According to the Independent, in the letter, Assange told Cumberbatch that he was a good person, but the film was not good and was going to be overwhelmingly negative for him.

He said the film, which charts the rise of the website and its release of cables leaked by Chelsea Manning, was based on a 'deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organisation'.

It charts the friendship and then rivalry of Assange and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, played by Daniel Bruhl.

Assange warned Cumberbatch that he would be "used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it".