With filming underway on what is surely expected by many to be an Oscar contender over the coming months the first pictures of Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Oliver Stone‘s Snowden have been released.
Written and directed by Stone, Snowden is based on the books “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” by Luke Harding and “Time of the Octopus” by Anatoly Kucherena.
Gordon-Levitt stars as Edward Snowden and on his Facebook page he released the following note, which explains the pictures you’re seeing here:
I was surprised when I first learned this about Snowden–that he enlisted in the US Army in 2004. He wanted to go fight in Iraq, but during basic training at Fort Benning, he broke both of his legs and received an administrative discharge. After that, he was still determined to serve his country (love him or hate him, you gotta admit the guy’s strong-willed) and so he ended up getting a job at the CIA, which is where his career in Intelligence began.
Today’s scenes felt like a really good way to start this shoot. It was hard, but of course, nowhere near as hard as real basic training. And me, I’m just honored and excited to be doing a soldier sequence with Oliver. I keep saying to myself: “fuck, this guy directed Platoon!”
The film co-stars Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Timothy Olyphant, Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson and Nicolas Cage and Open Road has already set a Christmas Day release. Oscar much?
