Oliver Stone meets Julian Assange, slams U.S. government

PanARMENIAN.Net - Oliver Stone has come to Julian Assange's defense once again. The Oscar-winning filmmaker met with the wanted web activist in England, then took to Twitter to slam several high-profile upcoming movies tackling the subject, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker and liberal activist met with the WikiLeaks founder at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Australian is ensconced to avoid extradition to Sweden in a sexual assault case -- and potential further extradition and prosecution in the U.S. Assange's site released 250,000 diplomatic cables -- nearly half of which were classified -- that embarrassed the American government and led to a subpoena.

On Twitter, Stone called the meeting, which took place April 4, a "hopeful talk" but said it was also "a sad occasion in that Julian could not follow me out the door. He lives in a tiny room with great modesty and discipline."

Assange has been in the Ecuadorian embassy since June.

Stone also slammed several upcoming films about Assange, including the documentary We Steal Secrets, by Alex Gibney. He wrote that it was "not expected to be kind," then took a shot at the Bill Condon-directed The Fifth Estate, in which Benedict Cumberbatch plays Assange.

That movie -- based on Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website as well as Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding's WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy -- also stars Laura Linney and Anthony Mackie and is due out in November.

Assange decried that film in January, calling it "a lie upon lie" and "a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff."

Stone added, "I don't think most people in the U.S. realize how important WikiLeaks is and why Julian's case needs support," and slammed the American government, writing that Assange "did much for free speech and is now being victimized by the abusers of that concept."

In August, Stone and Michael Moore wrote an op-ed in The New York Times decrying potential prosecution by the U.S. government.