German filmmaker Cyril Tuschi (“SommerHundeSöhne,” “Turn”) is looking to make “Three Dates With Harry Harrison”, a project that’s being described as an English language rom-com about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Producer Jan Krüger tells Screen Daily that “Cyril came up with the fact that Assange had been involved in internet dating using the screen name of Harry Harrison. So, the film recounts three dates with Harry Harrison taking place in 2010.”
They’ve even broken down the dates themselves – “One date is in Iceland when he was establishing a organisation that would change journalism, democracy and the Internet. Then we jump to the second date with a fan in Sweden where he is the man of the moment and feted like a popstar… Finally, there is an internet date in a manor house in London, with ‘Harrison’ all by himself wearing an electronic tag, third date being with a woman journalist who reflects on where he has ended up.”
Tuschi has been working with UK screenwriter Michael Gaster on a screenplay for the project about this “Robin Hood of the digital age who stumbles over his own personality”. Shooting aims to begin next Summer with 80% of the project to be shot in North Germany. A British or an Australian actor is expected to play Assange.
Krüger adds “We are interested in the fact that, from an early age, this character has always wanted to change the world and was constantly on the move with his mother in Australia to get away from the stepfather. As a 15-year-old, he had stood up to his stepfather as a symbol of authority. This is something that runs like a common thread through ‘Harrison’s’ life.”
It’s somewhat familiar material for Tuschi who recently did a documentary on the imprisoned Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
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