14 DAY TRIAL // One of the movies based on Edward Snowden’s life that’s in the project phase may feature Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Reports indicate that the well-known actor, who stared in movies such as “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception,” “Sin City,” “Numb3rs,” “10 Things I Hate About You,” and shows such as “3rd Rock from the Sun,” has expressed an interest in starring in Oliver Stone’s upcoming film.
“The Snowden Files” will be based on “Time of the Octopus,” a novel based on Snowden’s life written by Anatoly Kucherena, the whistleblower’s Russian lawyer, for which Stone has bought the rights. In addition, the film’s scenario will also be based on Luke Harding’s 2014 book “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man.”
It looks like Oliver Stone will be directing the movie, but he’ll also be responsible with the script. Eric Kopeloff (“Monster’s Ball,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”) and Moritz Borman (“Terminator Salvation,” “Alexander,” “Basic Instinct”) are said to be taking on the jobs of producers for the Snowden movie.
If the deal is made, the production of the movie will likely begin at the end of the year or early next year, with the release date being estimated for 2016.
Edward Snowden, the whistleblower
Edward Snowden’s name became known at a worldwide level in 2013 when he took responsibility for a series of leaked top-secret NSA documents that were covered by The Guardian and the Washington Post.
He admitted that he was behind the leaked documents and said that he chose to risk his life and freedom because he felt that what the NSA was doing was against basic human rights to privacy and the freedom of expression.
The files he shared with several media outlets have exposed the mass surveillance mechanism put together by the NSA and its partners, the Five Eyes, namely the intelligence agencies from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Not only did the files show that the NSA was spying on foreigners, but also on Americans, collecting phone call metadata, as well as email details. Documents have also exposed the NSA’s spying practices against foreign leaders, such as Angela Merkel and Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, the United Nations, the European Union, as well as embassies for countless countries around the world.
The documents and Snowden’s testimonies have managed to spark an international debate about what’s moral and what isn’t when it comes to the work of intelligence agencies.