Edward Snowden is an infamous figure in world events, national security and even pop culture. (Snowden was interviewed by John Oliver on Last Week Tonight at this time last year.)
The former National Security Agency contractor leaked classified intelligence documents to reporter Glenn Greenwald and filmmmaker Laura Poitras which revealed various global surveillance programs run by the NSA and other organizations. Among the information being monitored were phone and internet records, emails and instant messages, cell phone locations, and Yahoo and Google data centers.
But how much do we really know about Snowden, other than his whistle-blowing on the NSA’s surveillance practices and his escape to Russia, where he was granted asylum and currently lives in an undisclosed location to avoid arrest on espionage and theft charges? Is he a traitor? A hero? An idealist? Filmmaker Oliver Stone is looking to fill in those blanks, telling the story of the man and the events that led him toward his fateful decision.
The first trailer for Snowden, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the title character, was released on Wednesday. Take a look.
Sneaking out a SD card in a Rubik’s Cube is some cool espionage stuff. Maybe Snowden could have been a special agent after all.
How many of us knew that Snowden wanted to join the military and eventually U.S. Army Special Forces, before physical issues forced him to find other ways to serve his country, as a character puts it in the trailer? Speaking for myself, I did not. I figured he was a brainy computer analyst for CIA and NSA who made a shocking discovery that made him rethink what government agencies are doing to supposedly protect the world.
As it turns out, Snowden was indeed a wunderkind whose talents made him highly valuable toward “finding terrorists in the internet haystack.” The screenplay by Kieran Fitzgerald and Stone is based on Luke Harding’s book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man, along with a novel by Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, titled Time of the Octopus.
But will the film answer the question of why Levitt apparently feels the need to talk like Keanu Reeves in his portrayal of Snowden? Maybe that’s why Open Road moved Snowden‘s release date from May 13 to September. Don’t get confused with Keanu, Key and Peele’s film about the cat with the famous actor’s name. (OK, producers probably think this movie can be a contender in the Academy Award race. It was originally supposed to be released last Christmas.)
And if you were wondering — hey, does Edward Snowden himself know about this film or has he watched the trailer — the answer is apparently yes, according to his Twitter account (via Mashable).
For two minutes and thirty nine seconds, everybody at NSA just stopped working. https://t.co/OLjCV6wkGp
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 27, 2016
Directed by Stone, who is never short on controversial views and angle to take on political figures and world events, Snowden also stars Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans, Shailene Woodley, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Olyphant, Melissa Leo (who plays Poitras) and Zachary Quinto (playing Greenwald).
The film is scheduled for a Sept. 16 theatrical release.
