Oliver Stone has revealed that Edward Snowden was "amazed" by his film ‘Snowden’ and told him it was as "close to reality" as it could be.
The 70-year-old American director-and-screenwriter decided to take on the challenge of telling the real-life story of former CIA employee Snowden who leaked top secret National Security Agency (NSA) documents back in 2013.
Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald’s script was influenced by the books ‘The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man’ by Luke Harding and ‘Time of the Octopus’ by Anatoly Kucherena and when the filmmaker met the real-life Snowden in Moscow he was given the highest praise possible for his project.
In an interview with the Metro newspaper, he shared: "I think he was quite amazed. He has said that, technically, it was as close to reality as a film can get. I have to make it clear that this is his story, his way of seeing events. Which is a different point of view from the NSA, which of course ridiculed us."
Revealing what Snowden is doing now, Stone added: "[He’s doing] very well, physically and mentally. He seems very patient and he lives inside his own mind, you know? He is working on making the perfect encryption device but I can’t talk too much about that."
Stone is no stranger to making controversial movies as his filmography includes political dramas ‘JFK’, ‘W.’ and ‘Nixon’, Vietnam War movie ‘Platoon’ and violent crime satire ‘Natural Born Killers’.
He has now turned his attention to the possibility of making a movie about new US President Donald Trump, whom he finds a fascinating person.
He said: "[Trump] is very unpredictable and seems to be thin-skinned. But listen, they are after him, you know? There is a lot of effort being made to get rid of Trump and force his associates to resign."
When asked who he would cast as the former ‘Apprentice’ host, he quipped: "Who would I cast? Rhys Ifans! I don’t know…"
Oliver Stone: Whistleblower Edward Snowden was amazed by my film
