Oliver Stone's SNOWDEN currently being filmed

The Real Edward Snowden on the right

Edward Snowden is one of the most controversial people in recent times, him being an American computer professional, specifically a former system administrator for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who leaked classified information from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the mainstream media in 2013, and is now in hiding. Now, a film is being made about Snowden by Oliver Stone (him being a sort of controversial figure in film himself), who is known for making marvellous films as "Platoon", "Nixon", and "Born on the Fourth of July" to name a few. This film is entitled "Snowden" and it will star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character. [hit the jump to continue]

The screenplay is written by Oliver Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald, and it is based on the books "The Snowden Files" by Luke Harding and "Time of the Octopus" by Anatoly Kucherena. Aside from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the cast also includes Shailene Woodley (who will play Snowden's girlfriend, Lindsay Mills),
, Scott Eastwood, Melissa Leo, Timothy Olyphant, Zachary Quinto, Nicolas Cage and Tom Wilkinson.


It should also be interesting to note that Melissa Leo will play documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras, whose documentary "Citizenfour" which was a documentary about Snowden, just recently won the Academy Awards for Best Documentary.  Zachary Quinto will play Glenn Greenwald, the journalist chosen by Snowden to leak sensitive information, and Tom Wilkinson will play Ewen MacAskill, defense and intelligence correspondent for The Guardian, who helped report the Snowden story.

Keith Stanfield will play a National Security Administration co-worker and a close friend to Snowden. Timothy Olyphant will star as a CIA agent who befriended Snowden before he fled to Russia, and Nicolas Cage who will be playing the role of a former US Intelligence official.


It was only last year, June 2, 2014, when it was announced that Oliver Stone and Moritz Borman acquired the rights to the book "The Snowden Files" by Luke Harding and Stone would write and direct a film based on the book. Later on, rights to "Time of the Octopus" by Anatoly Kucherena have also been acquired. Stone would use both books as the sources to write the screenplay.

Filming began recently, just last February 16, 2015 in Munich, Germany and is expected for theatrical release in the US on December 25, 2015. We can expect the film to have a Philippine release by January 2016.