With FX series Justified coming to an end, headliner Timothy Olyphant will have a large gap in his schedule, and may have just slotted in his next project; as director Oliver Stone (Platoon) reportedly wants him to star in his upcoming movie revolving around NSA whistlerblower Edward Snowden.
For those who don’t know, Snowden was a contractor working for the National Security Agency, who leaked a number of classified documents to Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald back in 2013, before having to reluctantly flee to Russia, and wait to see if he would be granted asylum there. Now residing in Russia (being basically trapped since the US government cancelled his passport), Snowden is hailed as a true patriotic hero as some, and a vile traitor by others.
Stone publicly rests in the first camp (believing Snowden’s actions to be heroic), and is gearing up to produce a film based on his experiences; utilising both a novel by Snowden’s Russian lawyer (Time of The Octopus) which details the events which led to his current situation, and a book by Guardian journalist Luke Harding (The Snowden Files: The Inside Story Of The World’s Most Wanted Man).
Citizenfour (a documentary about Snowden) has already been nominated for an Oscar (we’ll find out the results of the Oscars this Sunday), so there’s clearly a great deal of interest in the story, and with a cast which already boasts the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Lincoln), Shailene Woodley (Divergent), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Rhys Ifans (The Amazing Spider-Man), Scott Eastwood (Fury), and Joely Richardson (The Patriot), and filming gearing up to start in Munich very soon, Snowden could be one to watch when it’s released on December 25th 2015 (as of yet there’s no confirmed UK release date).
Matt Wheeldon – @TheMattWheeldon.
Source: Deadline.
