03 Jun 2014
Oliver Stone, 67, with his production partner Moritz Borman, has bought the film rights to Luke Harding's "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man," that delves into the events surrounding the leaking of top-secret NSA surveillance programmes to the media by employee Edward Snowden.
"This is one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge," Mr Stone said. The filmmaker, who has won Oscars for directing 1986's Platoon and 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, will write and direct the film and also include materials from the journalists who broke the story.
Last year, Snowden, who had been working at an NSA facility, leaked a raft of secret documents that revealed a vast US government system for monitoring phone and Internet data.
The leaks deeply embarrassed the Obama administration, which in January banned the US from eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly countries and allies and began reining in the sweeping collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms triggered by Snowden's revelations.
To many in government and at the NSA, Snowden is a traitor who compromised the security of the United States. But for many he is a hero who protected privacy and civil liberties.
In August of 2013, Mr Stone publicly supported Snowden during an event for media at the Japan Foreign Press Club, saying shortly after the story broke, "Snowden is a hero to me. Edward Snowden is a hero. Because he did this not for profit, not to give, exchange, give secrets away that could hurt our country supposedly. I haven't seen one evidence of that. He is doing it out of conscience. The higher law of his conscience is dictated it. He sacrificed his life for this."
Source: RTV
Oliver Stone, 67, with his production partner Moritz Borman, has bought the film rights to Luke Harding's "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man," that delves into the events surrounding the leaking of top-secret NSA surveillance programmes to the media by employee Edward Snowden.
"This is one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge," Mr Stone said. The filmmaker, who has won Oscars for directing 1986's Platoon and 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, will write and direct the film and also include materials from the journalists who broke the story.
Last year, Snowden, who had been working at an NSA facility, leaked a raft of secret documents that revealed a vast US government system for monitoring phone and Internet data.
The leaks deeply embarrassed the Obama administration, which in January banned the US from eavesdropping on the leaders of friendly countries and allies and began reining in the sweeping collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms triggered by Snowden's revelations.
To many in government and at the NSA, Snowden is a traitor who compromised the security of the United States. But for many he is a hero who protected privacy and civil liberties.
In August of 2013, Mr Stone publicly supported Snowden during an event for media at the Japan Foreign Press Club, saying shortly after the story broke, "Snowden is a hero to me. Edward Snowden is a hero. Because he did this not for profit, not to give, exchange, give secrets away that could hurt our country supposedly. I haven't seen one evidence of that. He is doing it out of conscience. The higher law of his conscience is dictated it. He sacrificed his life for this."
Source: RTV
