Edward Snowden story to hit big screen

The story about Edward Snowden and his National Security Agency leaks is headed for the big screen. 

Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone announced on Monday that he and his long-time producing partner, Moritz Borman, purchased rights to “The Snowden Files, The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man,” written by Luke Harding, journalist at The Guardian.

“Stone will write and direct the film, drawing from Harding’s critically-acclaimed account of events surrounding the Guardian’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting of the disclosures provided by Edward Snowden, as well as additional materials from the Guardian’s U.S. team who broke the story,” The Guardian said in a press release.

{mosads}Stone has already begun writing the screenplay and is slated to begin filming before the end of the year.

“This is one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge. I’m glad to have The Guardian working with us,” Stone said.

Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Entertainment recently announced it purchased rights to Glenn Greenwald’s book, No Place to Hide, about Snowden and the NSA revelations.

CNN notes two well-known producers, Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, are attached to that project, suggesting that could turn into a movie as well. Broccoli was a producer for the most recent James Bond films.

Greenwald was the first journalist to report on documents leaked by Snowden nearly a year ago. He had been working for The Guardian at the time, and has since left and created a journalism startup called The Intercept.

In an NBC News interview that aired last week, Snowden defended his decision to leak the documents.

“Sometimes to do the right thing you have to break the law,” he said.