OLIVER STONE MEETS EDWARD SNOWDEN IN RUSSIA

Director Oliver Stone has met Edward Snowden in Russia to discuss his upcoming film about the NSA whistleblower, he told the Russian news service RIA Novosti. "I’ve met him," said Stone, the director of such controversial features as Platoon (1986), JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), W. (2008), and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). "We are working on the script … and we’re very pleased about how it’s coming along," he added. Stone said that for the past year he has been working with Snowden’s Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherina, on the screenplay. Kucherina has written a fictional account of the Snowden saga, published in Russia under the title Time of the Octopus. Stone said that he plans to begin production on the film, currently titled The Snowden Files, early next year, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring in the title role. He’s "a very good actor, popular with young people," he remarked. Meanwhile, the British trade publication Screen Daily reported that the film is currently in pre-production in Munich and that it will begin shooting in January. It said that Wild Bunch has acquired international rights to the movie.