The Edward Snowden story is an incredibly important one as it relates to what constitutes illegal search and seizure and the future of surveillance, and the only reason it doesn’t get more coverage is that the NSA’s surveillance program is too technologically complex for the average person to understand. The story is dying for a competent, unbiased storyteller to deliver it to the masses, but unfortunately we’re getting Oliver Stone instead.
He has tackled the Kennedy assassination and the Watergate break-in, the Vietnam conflict and the Bush administration’s “war on terror”. Now the Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone is set to whip up fresh controversy with his adaptation of The Snowden Files, an account of the ongoing NSA scandal written by the Guardian journalist Luke Harding.
“Fresh controversy” is the last thing this story needs. I can think of few other stories with a higher controversy to people-understanding-what-the-f*ck-the-story-is-even-about ratios.
Stone’s thriller will focus on the experiences of the American whistleblower Edward Snowden, a contractor at the National Security Agency who leaked thousands of classified documents to the former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald back in June 2013. The film is to be produced by Stone’s regular business partner Moritz Borman, with Harding and other Guardian journalists serving as production and story consultants.
“This is one of the greatest stories of our time,” Stone, 67, said in a statement. “A real challenge. I’m glad to have the Guardian working with us.” Stone’s previous films include Platoon, JFK and W. The director has also made documentaries on Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, together with a 2012 TV series, Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the United States. [Guardian]
The Guardian story is all about how Oliver Stone will help get the story eyeballs, but is a controversial media hook really the greatest concern here? This story could use someone like Michael Lewis, a guy who can deliver a story with labyrinthine technical minutiae in a cogent, entertaining way, with a minimum of political baggage. Oops, we got the “wargasms” guy instead.
“How can we get the American people to pay attention to this important story? Oooh, I know, we’ll get the infamous conspiracy guy!”
Here’s Snowden’s recent interview with NBC: