We’ve seen images – here and here – of Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden for director Oliver Stone‘s upcoming political drama Snowden, and now comes the first teaser for the film. Well, sort if. It’s a teaser in the strictest sense of the word, showing us only facts about Snowden’s life, set against the image of an upside-down American flag (a Stone staple) and an ominous version of “This Little Light of Mine.”
The film is of course based on the true story of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who, in 2013, revealed to the world that the U.S. government was in fact collecting information on its own citizens. Snowden was wanted for treason and forced to flee to Russia, where he currently resides.
This teaser doesn’t reveal much about the actual film, but does set a politically-charged tone, right in line with Stone’s previous work like Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995), and W. (2008). Stone has also directed a number of politically-minded documentaries in recent years, including Mi Amigo Hugo (2014), Castro in Winter (2012), and South of the Border (2009).
Snowden sports an impressive cast, another staple of Stone’s work. This time around he is working with Gordon-Levitt (Looper), Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars), Timothy Olyphant (TV’s Justified), Melissa Leo (The Fighter), Zachary Quinto (Star Trek Into Darkness), Rhys Ifans (Greenberg), Tom Wilkinson (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and Nicolas Cage (National Treasure).
Open Road Films will release Snowden later this year, on Christmas Day. Check back here before then for the film’s official full-length trailer.
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