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A telemovie about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, which initially screened on Network Ten, will get an event-style theatrical release.

Matchbox Pictures’ produced Underground: The Julian Assange Story will run from 17 March across 11 dates and seven Palace theatres.

Directed by Robert Connolly the film rated 1.3m viewers in October for the network.

The tele-movie also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Connolly’s Footprint Films has picked up the film through the distributor’s CinemaPlus initiative.

Connolly plus cast will attend the screenings for Q&A sessions, live musical performances and political action forums. Attendees will also receive a DVD of the film with special features including featurettes, screenplays and extracts from Suelette Dreyfus’s eBook Underground and music from the soundtrack.

Connolly said: “CinemaPlus is simply a new way at looking at the theatrical release of films. We want to be able to provide a different experience for cinema goers,...

Telemovie Underground: The Julian Assange Story will have a brief theatrical run as part of a new distribution initiative run by director Robert Connolly.

Underground was screened on Channel Ten last October and attracted an impressive 1.33 million viewers, winning its prime-time Sunday night slot. It was also screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival.

The theatrical edition of Underground will be distributed by Footprint Films' new CinemaPlus initiative, which will broaden traditional theatrical screenings into live events, including director and cast Q&A sessions, live musical performances, and political action forums.

"CinemaPlus is simply a new way at looking at the theatrical release of films", Connolly, who is also a director of Footprint Films, said in a statement. "We want to be able to provide a different experience for cinema goers, to support the film with talks, Q&As and take-home content. To not only...

The first trailer for "Underground: The Julian Assange Story" (better known as "the Julian Assange movie") has debuted. The film stars Alex Williams as the well-coiffed rogue, with Anthony Lapaglia as the detective on his case. Laura Wheelwright plays his girlfriend and Rachel Griffiths plays his mother, Christine.

"Underground" is a made-for-Australian-tv movie, but it is nonetheless screening this weekend at the Toronto International Film Festival. Deadline.com reports that the movie is based on the 1997 book Underground: Tales of Hacking, Madness and Obsession on the Electronic Frontier by Suelette Dreyfus. NBCUniversal will distribute the film worldwide.

The real-life Assange is currently stuck in Ecuador's embassy in London, where he is hiding from authorities. Assange is evading being shipped to Sweden to face rape and sexual assault charges. His decision to remain in London has become a diplomatic nightmare for England, who has said it is legally obligated to deliver the suspect to Sweden.

An Australian TV movie that chronicles the WikiLeaks founder’s years as a teenage computer hacker in Melbourne in the late 1980s screens Saturday at the Toronto International Film Festival. Newcomer Alex Williams plays Assange, with Rachel Griffiths as his activist mother Christine, Laura Wheelwright as his girlfriend, and Anthony Lapaglia as the cop who investigates the case. Written and directed by Robert Connolly and based on the 1997 novel Underground: Tales Of Hacking, Madness And Obsession On The Electronic Frontier by Suelette Dreyfus, the telepic was commissioned by Australia’s Network Ten, which will air it next month. NBCUniversal International is distributing worldwide. Assange is currently holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London to avoid being arrested and extradited to Sweden for questioning about alleged sexual misconduct or to the U.S. over Wikileaks’ release of confidential diplomatic information.