Advertisement

See The First Picture Of Joseph Gordon-Levitt As Edward Snowden In New Film

See The First Picture Of Joseph Gordon-Levitt As Edward Snowden In New Film
See The First Picture Of Joseph Gordon-Levitt As Edward Snowden In New Film

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowdon. Photo: Facebook

Filming has just begun on Snowden, the Oliver Stone-directed biopic of Edward Snowden, the American ex-NSA analyst who leaked classified information to the media in 2013 and fled the U.S, settling in Russia.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play the 31-year old Snowden, while the rest of the star-studded cast includes Shailene Woodley as Lindsay Mills (Snowden’s pole-dancing girlfriend), Tom Wilkinson as Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill and Oscar-winning actress Melissa Leo as documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras. Nicolas Cage, Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson are also attached in unannounced supporting roles.

Gordon-Levitt shared a picture from the first day of filming on his Facebook, and it portrays Snowden in a light we haven’t seen before. Clad in army fatigues and taking part in basic training at an American army base, Gordon-Levitt’s Snowden is not the suited-whistleblower hiding out in a Hong Kong hotel room but an eager young army recruit desperate to serve his country.

“I was surprised when I first learned… that he enlisted in the US Army in 2004,” Gordon-Levitt wrote on his Facebook. “He wanted to go fight in Iraq, but during basic training… he broke both of his legs and received an administrative discharge.” From there, Snowden applied and was accepted into the CIA, kick-starting his career in national intelligence, which will be the central focus of the film slated for a Boxing Day release this year.

Between Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Edward Snowden and Eddie Redmayne’s transgender artist, we might as well just hand out next year’s Oscars now.


RELATED:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Will Play Edward Snowden In New Biopic

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: "I'm A Feminist"

Jennifer Lawrence To Star As War Photographer Lynsey Addario In New Film