By David Gelles in New York and Matthew Garrahan in Los Angeles

Newspapers and journalists are cashing in on WikiLeaks? war on secrecy as Hollywood studios scramble to buy the ?life rights? to key players involved in last year?s publication of thousands of classified documents.

At least five film versions of the WikiLeaks story are in develop-ment from groups including DreamWorks, HBO, the BBC and Universal Pictures. This has set off a fight for exclusive adaptation rights to the books and articles published about the saga.

DreamWorks has taken the unusual step of buying rights to two books on WikiLeaks, including WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange?s War on Secrecy, by David Leigh and Luke Harding, two reporters at the UK?s Guardian newspaper.

The company has also struck rights deals with other journalists from the Guardian, one of several newspapers to have worked closely with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, its founder.

DreamWorks declined to comment on its WikiLeaks project, but a person familiar with the situation said: ?DreamWorks wanted to secure as many rights as possible so it can tell the best possible story.? Another person familiar with the project said the studio had spent more than $1m on options and life rights.

The deals prohibit reporters and editors from talking about their experiences to producers of rival films.

Those understood to have agreed deals with DreamWorks include Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, and Ian Katz, deputy editor. A person familiar with the deals said they represented a ?nice chunk? of money. Mr Rusbridger denied he had been paid separately for his rights and declined to comment on deals struck by colleagues. ?I?m not earning anything out of it ? all [the money] is going to the Guardian,? he said.

Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, sold his life rights to another production group led by Mark Boal, the screenwriter who won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker. Mr Keller?s magazine article about WikiLeaks was optioned by the project, and he and the New York Times will both receive payments.

HBO, the cable channel owned by Time Warner, is working on a project with the BBC and has bought the rights to a New Yorker article on Mr Assange. Charles Ferguson, who won an Oscar for his documentary Inside Job, is to direct the film.

? The Financial Times Limited 2011