A couple of days ago, the news broke that Justified star Timothy Olyphant was circling a role in Oliver Stone’s still-untitled film about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Cut to today and Stone has locked down his cast, including Olyphant, with Zachary Quinto, Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson all set for Snowden.
Stone has now started shooting the film in Munich, having bought up two prime sources for his film: Time Of The Octopus, a novel by Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, giving him access to the story of the whistleblower who reluctantly sought asylum in Russia and had to wait to see if the country would grant it. The producers also have the option on Guardian journalist Luke Harding’s book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story Of The World’s Most Wanted Man.
Pitched as a thriller, Snowden will chart the experiences of Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the whistleblowing National Security Agency contractor who began leaking classified documents to former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald in June 2013. Snowden, currently stuck in Russia after the US cancelled his passport, has become a polarising figure between those – such as the director himself – who consider him a patriotic hero, and those who feel he’s a traitor.
Nothing is known about what role any of the new arrivals will play, though Shailene Woodley is set as Snowden’s girlfriend, Lindsay Mills and Olyphant is aboard as a CIA agent. With a script by Kieran Fitzgerald and the director, Snowden should be out next year.