CITIZENFOUR won the Oscar for Documentary Feature a little over a week ago after an impressive run in the awards circuit. The film told the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden contacting director Laura Poitras and her subsequent meetings with him formed the basis of the documentary. Today the first pictures from Oliver Stone's upcoming drama, Snowden, became public.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will star as Snowden, but it's not the first time he has starred in a feature film similar to an Oscar-winning documentary. Stone is no stranger to shining the spotlight on controversial figures, and Gordon-Levitt made a statement on his Facebook page about his reaction to the project. The statement reads:
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.
I recently saw the trailer for a completely different film titled, The Walk. The tease shows a slightly shaggy Gordon-Levitt in Argo-esque clothes as he stands atop the World Trade Center. As the trailer played, I kept thinking, "Oh no...no...it's Man on Wire...nononononono!" JGL will play Philippe Petit, the French high-wire artist who walked between the World Trade Center Towers in 1974. Funny enough, Petit was the subject of the documentary Man on Wire from 2008. Oh, and that also won the Oscar for Documentary Feature. Wire was directed by The Theory of Everything's James Marsh. Take a look at the trailers side by side.
I'm not super sold on The Walk since it looks like it's Spider-Man 78, and I really want Joseph Gordon-Levitt to start dancing the Flashdance finale up on a wire (Petit actually crossed between the skyscrapers 8 times and did a little dancing as well). If you're dramatizing an Oscar-winning doc, Joseph's your guy. What's next? Fingers crossed for March of the Penguins.
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