Sony To Make Movie of Edward Snowden Story 107
wiredmikey (1824622) writes "Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired the rights to the new book by journalist Glenn Greenwald about fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, the studio said Wednesday. James Bond franchise producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli will make the movie version of 'No Place to Hide,' described as 'a political film that will resonate with today's moviegoers.' The book, subtitled 'Edward Snowden, the NSA and the US Surveillance State,' was just recently published in Britain by Hamish Hamilton and in the United States by Metropolitan Books."
Re:Reserved Judgement (Score:4, Insightful)
Heh
Remember Takedown?
Accuracy will be the first thing to go in the name of artistic license.
Re:Good for all the traitors (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:Snowden does NOT... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Reserved Judgement (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean the threat that some self-righteous person can lie and manipulate his fellow workers into risking their jobs and livelihoods just so the self-righteous person can get some attention?? That if someone at work asks you to do something that isn't following procedure that you probably shouldn't do it because you could lose your job for someone that doesn't give a crap about you and will just flee the country and leave you hanging in the wind??
I hope so, maybe we can stop more security leaks.
Because the last time I checked ... nothing has changed. Other than Snowden getting far more press coverage than he deserves.
Or will Sony be brave enough to paint the entire picture rather than just try and create a feel-good movie about an underdog by only presenting the facts that help them get the best ratings instead of presenting a balanced viewpoint?
Probably .. that's what most documentaries do. Al Gore and Michael Moore are masters of that, I wonder if Sony will hire them.
Re:Got it! (Score:2, Insightful)
I wonder if the previous poster realizes this is actually true.
Re:Reserved Judgement (Score:3, Insightful)
This could be a good opportunity to wake up the populace to the very real threat to their liberty that mass surveillance is. Or it could just be a stupid "action" thriller that focusses on the wrong thing entirely - Snowden's flight. I'll reserve judgement, but my bet would be on the latter.
Surveillance is not a threat to liberty. Assholes with authority are, even with the wrong information. You don't need surveillance to be an asshole with authority, and surveillance isn't what makes you one.
Re:Reserved Judgement (Score:2, Insightful)
Painting him as the bad guy wouldn't work. Overt propaganda is much less effective than covert. Just look at most WWII-era propaganda and compare it with modern propaganda. My guess is they will end the movie like "but was it worth it?", showing the character's actions as negative but not evil. So people will go out of it thinking "oh, he's an idiot who didn't think of the consequences, I'm much more clever and so is Big Brother."
Re:Reserved Judgement (Score:5, Insightful)
Because the last time I checked ... nothing has changed. Other than Snowden getting far more press coverage than he deserves.
Thanks to Snowden people are focused on securing the internet. Old protocols are being re-examined, new ones are being developed to be secure from the start. We found out about numerous back doors and weakened systems. We learned of previously unknown security flaws. We found about about widespread criminality and abuse, and reacted to it.
Companies that the NSA/GCHQ had hacked have made changes to secure themselves. Maybe not enough, but things have definitely improved and they will be looking to block spies in the future.
Even if you think that is all bad, at the very least Snowden demonstrated how insecure the NSA is. If he could get all that information from such a lowly position then it is safe to assume that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and a number of other agencies had already infiltrated and gathered it all anyway. Americans should know that their country's secrets have been widely and easily compromised.