Director Oliver Stone on Thursday said at Comic-Con International that every major movie studio turned down his narrative film about Edward Snowden because of censorship from their corporate leaders.
Stone, who has chronicled many US conspiracies in his films, said he does not believe an entity like the US National Security Agency (NSA) is putting pressure on the studios, but the corporate boards who control them.
He got financing from France and Germany for the movie, which comes out on Sept. 16 and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden.
Stone said he believes Snowden is still “a mystery” despite many interviews, articles and the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour exploring the former NSA contractor who leaked thousands of classified documents about the government’s surveillance programs.
Snowden now lives in Russia, and Stone met with him a number of times in Moscow, trying to gain his trust and decide whether to take on the project.
Gordon-Levitt also tried to get to know Snowden before portraying him.
The actor said he was particularly surprised at Snowden’s optimism about the ability of technology to positively change the future.
The conversation on Thursday took a decidedly heady turn, away from the usual fanboy fun and toward big ideas about government transparency and the surveillance state.
“We’re promised privacy in the [US] constitution, and if the government was going to change those rules, they have to be open about it,” Gordon-Levitt said. “We’re supposed to have that conversation and decide together.”
The film was to screen for the first time on Thursday at the annual fan convention.
Although Stone and the cast have their own views on Snowden, the filmmaker said that the movie is not one-sided.
“We don’t want to take sides on this in the movie,” Stone said. “You have to see the movie to explore the positions.”
Gordon-Levitt added that it is a story that does not lend itself to a headline.
“It isn’t even as simple as a two-hour film,” he said.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS