It would be an off day for Oliver Stone if he didn’t do something to court controversy. So, it’s just another Thursday for the director. The filmmaker is currently at work on an adaptation of Luke Harding‘s "The Snowden Files" and the novel "Time of the Octopus," by Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, which will tell the cinematic version of Edward Snowden’s leak of critical documents and his flight from the U.S. government. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to play Snowden, but unlike the Julian Assange flick "The Fifth Estate," which angered the Wikileaks founder (though he did turn down requests to meet with the filmmakers), Stone seems to be aiming to make sure the subject of his movie is at least informed of what’s going on.
Even though the United States government can’t get to Snowden, Stone managed to make his way to Russia and talk to America’s most wanted man. "I’ve met him [Snowden]," the director told RIA Novosti (thanks to c7nema for the heads up), though he didn’t offer many other details of their talk. Screen Daily reports that the film is already in pre-production, with filming aiming for a January start in Munich.
Meanwhile, Stone is dreaming of other film ventures. Having already made controversial film portraits "Nixon" and "W.," and the Fidel Castro documentary "Commandante," he now has his eye on Vladimir Putin.
"I would like to make a documentary [about Putin]," the director said to RIA Novosti, explaining: "We had no plans to make a movie [a scripted feature] on Putin. I would love to do an interview with him… because he represents a different point of view that Americans don’t hear."
So, meeting Snowden (and making a movie about him) plus a desire to make a Putin documentary…if Stone isn’t already on the NSA watchlist, by the end of the day he might be. Like we said, just another Thursday…