It's not due to hit theaters till December 25, but we now have our first look at Joseph Gordon-Levitt as whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone's upcoming international thriller Snowden. The first couple of images are fascinating because they reveal an Edward Snowden many people probably aren't familiar with.
If you've read the papers and watched the news -- and devoured the fantastic Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour -- then the version of Snowden you know is not the one you see here. But yes, long before he became the world's most famous whistle-blower, Snowden enlisted in the U.S. Army.
So what happened?
Here's what Gordon-Levitt had to say on Facebook after he posted a second image of himself as Snowden, featured below.
"I was surprised when I first learned this about Snowden -- that he enlisted in the U.S. 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.
Today's scenes felt like a really good way to start this shoot. It was hard, but of course, nowhere near as hard as real basic training. And me, I'm just honored and excited to be doing a soldier sequence with Oliver. I keep saying to myself: "f*ck, this guy directed Platoon!"'
Open Road Films will release Snowden on December 25, 2015. Could we see his story back in the awards race yet again? What do you think?
