Trailer for the upcoming Snowden film, with Joseph Gordon Levitt

Trailer (I find it more a teaser than a trailer tho) for the upcoming Snowden film, based on the book written by someone who has never met him. But, the best news, my super favorite actor Joseph Gordon Levitt is playing Edward Snowden, and wrote a while back on his Facebook page about the movie:

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 fact that he plays Snowden, makes me really excited for this movie. Otherwise, I’d just think ‘ another Hollywood movie that’s not gonna work’. Remember Ashton as Steve? Horrible.

Now, the fact that Snowden himself (played by Joseph Gordon Levitt) is not showing up in the trailer is probably because Edward Snowden is the most wanted man in the world and he’s keen on his privacy. At least, I hope they had that in mind when creating this teaser.

Snowden

Snowden, tells the story of how one thoughtful young man went from Army recruit to government employee to the most important whistleblower of the 21st century, blowing the lid off the surveillance state we are living inside.

Snowden released his massive trove of National Security Agency documents back in 2013, but the repercussions of his actions are still rippling through the US. Just this month, the Senate let an aspect of the Patriot Act lapse that was used to justify NSA spying on the metadata of American citizens.

It was the small but important first step in holding government accountable in the tug-of-war between personal liberty and national security.

I’m really curious if Stone will portray Snowden as a traitor or a hero. He has never met him. He only read the books and probably watched Citizenfour. Like I. And you know what I think of the guy. We will know it by the end of this year, when the film hits cinemas on December 25th.

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