Oliver Stone to Tackle Competing Edward Snowden Biopic

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Oliver Stone at the Beijing International Film Festival on April 16, 2014.

Image: ChinaFotoPress

By Josh Dickey2014-06-02 17:04:50 UTC

No movie project about a major newsmaker is complete these days without another movie project about that major newsmaker.

Just ask Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks saga is the subject of 10 imdb entries, including two theatrical releases; or Steve Jobs, whose legacy has already suffered the Ashton Kutcher treatment and will soon be the focus of a major motion picture from Sony.

SEE ALSO: The Edward Snowden Movie: Our Dream Cast

Now Sony finds itself a step behind in yet another footrace, this time on a potential Edward Snowden movie.

Two weeks after Sony announced it had optioned rights to No Place to Hide, the new book by former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, the paper reported that Oliver Stone will direct a “big-budget” adaptation of The Snowden Files, an account of the NSA scandal written by Guardian journalist Luke Harding.

Greenwald’s reporting won the British paper a Pulitzer Prize, but he also left four months later to start his own online publication, The Intercept. Harding, on the other hand, is still on the Guardian’s payroll.

And unlike Sony’s No Place to Hide, there’s already a director onboard for The Snowden Files. Stone, who simply cannot resist a good anti-government conspiracy yarn, doesn’t have a major studio backing Snowden Files, though he does have a producer in regular business partner Moritz Borman — and the backing of the Guardian.

The Platoon and JFK director will be working with Harding and “other Guardian journalists serving as production and story consultants,” according to the paper, which included a quote from Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger in its announcement.

"This is one of the greatest stories of our time," Stone, 67, said in a statement. "A real challenge. I'm glad to have the Guardian working with us."

The paper says the film will be a European co-production (read: Continental film financiers, give us a call!) and is due to start shooting before the end of the year.

If they stay on track, and Stone stays in the driver’s seat (he abruptly left a Martin Luther King biopic project back in January over differences with the family over the inclusion of infidelity in the script), they have a very good chance of beating Sony out of the gate, as no director has yet been named for No Place to Hide.

Place your bets!

Topics: edward snowden, Entertainment, Film, NSA, Oliver Stone, The Guardian