Back in September it was rumored that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had been offered the role of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in an upcoming Oliver Stone film.
Now, the news has been confirmed. Speaking to Russian new site RIA Novosti, Oliver Stone said that the part will indeed be played by Gordon-Levitt, who he called “a very good actor, popular with the young people.”
The project, which has yet to start filming, is still untitled. We do know that it will be based on two different books, to which Stone acquired the rights – The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man, by journalist Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus, by Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.
Stone also confirmed that shooting could begin as soon as early 2015.
“We are working on the script. We hope to shoot early next year, we’ve been working on it for almost a year now … and we’re very pleased it’s coming along,” Stone told RIA Novosti.
Stone has already met with Snowden, who was recently granted a three-year residence permit in Russia. In the summer of 2013, the 31-year-old former NSA analyst famously leaked (and continues to leak) documents and anecdotes about the US government’s massive surveillance initiative.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
