At Sunday night’s Oscars ceremony, the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour took home a statue for best documentary feature film.
But the Edward Snowden story is also getting a dramatic retelling, as Oliver Stone is currently working on a film. Today, we have some new info on the film – including a new casting decision.
According to Variety, Nicolas Cage has joined the cast of Snowden. He will reportedly play a “former U.S. Intelligence Official.”
As for the role of Snowden, that went to Joseph Gordon-Levitt back in November of last year. Since then, plenty of other big names have joined the project, including Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, and Timothy Olyphant.
Open Road Films has also announced the official premiere date – Christmas 2015.
ANNOUNCEMENT: @TheOliverStone @SnowdenTheMovie cast will feature @hitRECordJoe @shailenewoodley @MelissaLeo @ZacharyQuinto in theaters 12/25
— Open Road Films (@OpenRoadFilms) February 20, 2015
The movie has begun principal photography and though we don’t know a lot about the script, we do know that it will be based on two different books, to which Stone acquired the rights – The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man, by journalist Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus, by Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.
Stone has already met with Snowden, who was recently granted a three-year residence permit in Russia. In 2013, the former NSA analyst leaked (and continues to leak) documents and anecdotes about the US government’s massive surveillance initiative.
Image via Nicolas Genin, Wikimedia Commons