Sony To Make Movie of Edward Snowden Story

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."

Reserved Judgement

[GrahamCox]

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.

Re:Reserved Judgement

[PopeRatzo]

Perhaps you don't understand how it works. Accuracy is not important if it gets people exercised about their rights being violated by the government. If you want accuracy, you go to a journalist. If you want agitprop, you go to a filmmaker.

And I'm not using "agitprop" as a negative.

The surveillance state is growing so powerful so quickly, nothing short of a lot of people making this their number one issue can possibly stop it. I don't care if the movie takes shortcuts or glosses over details, as long as it changes some minds.

Of course, if Sony's in charge, it could easily paint Snowden as History's Greatest Monster and be nothing more than a commercial for how great it is to have a bunch of g-men upskirting your private communications.

Tell you one thing, though. Just the fact that Sony's making a movie means that some people who've ignored the whole issue up to now will get to know something about what happened. If it forces them to go look up some sources and find out just what kind of wolf-in-sheep's clothing the Obama Administration turned out to be, it will be worth it. Maybe it'll stop another authoritarian corporatist (Hillary) from becoming president. If a few things break right, we could end up throwing the elections of 2016 up for grabs, which could only be a good thing. If it gets people to go out into the streets, it would be a great thing.

Re:Reserved Judgement

[Charliemopps]

If you lie while making your argument, all anyone will talk about is the lie. There's nothing quite so stupid as hading your enemy a dagger right before your fight.