With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Shailene Woodley now confirmed, Oliver Stone is gathering the rest of the cast for his film about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. He wants Justified’s Timothy Olyphant to join the team.
Stone and producer Moritz Borman have bought up two prime sources for their 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 filmmakers 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, Stone’s film will chart the experiences of Snowden, 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. Among the people who interacted with him is a CIA agent, who befriended Snowden before he fled to Russia. If he makes a deal, Olyphant will take that role.
With Citizenfour, the documentary about Snowden up for an Oscar this weekend, there’s plenty of interest in this one, and Stone is setting up a shoot in Munich so he can get this one made as soon as possible.