According to Variety, Oliver Stone will direct an adaptation of the Oliver Stone movie that is the case of Edward Snowden and his leaking of information regarding NSA surveillance programs—a story that played out over months of quick-cut montages featuring government men talking in low murmurs, grainy, black-and-white close-ups of Snowden running a hand over his stubbled face, and ironically juxtaposed clips of President Obama frowning in concern at news conferences. All of these myriad clips will now be assembled by Stone for a movie based on Guardian reporter Luke Harding’s The Snowden Files, as well as the murky, real-life Oliver Stone conspiracy movie that this has been from day one. Stone will write, direct, and give interviews haranguing you for your apathy.
Adding another layer of contentiousness to a project that definitely doesn’t need any more, this is the second Snowden film to be announced in recent weeks, as James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson just purchased the rights to No Place To Hide from Snowden collaborator/former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald. Stone is now planning to get his movie—which will feature input from other people at The Guardian for whom this whole Snowden thing has been almost as much a godsend—wrapped up quickly, hoping to beat No Place To Hide to the punch.
Stone has already flatly called Snowden a “hero” and Obama a “snake,” giving Stone his most obvious plan of attack since JFK. Meanwhile, Harding’s story is filled with crazily detailed vignettes of paranoia that should make for easy insert shots. So, it seems safe to say that deadline should be easily met, depending on how many film stocks Stone decides are necessary to jazz up his shots of people typing.