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Oliver Stone's unhealthy treatment of hacking in Hollywood
What's so compelling about Oliver Stone's recent four-part interview series with Vladimir Putin is probably not what the multi-Oscar-winning director intended. It's the same thing that makes his Edward Snowden biopic its own sort of cipher after the fact. Both have inadvertently — and strangely, by their own design — upset the already shaky foundations of toxic hero worship in the era of hackers, hacktivism and cyber-espionage.
'Snowden' is a simplistic, but important, reminder of NSA spying
When Oliver Stone's Snowden was first announced, it seemed far too soon to be retelling the story of the infamous whistleblower. After all, it was only three years ago that the files Snowden leaked led to the world-shaking revelations of the NSA's massive global surveillance network. That's not nearly enough time for us to make any sort of substantive historical analysis.
Watch Snowden talk 'Snowden' with Oliver Stone next month
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's telepresence world tour has another stop: a conversation following an early screening of the upcoming Oliver Stone biopic, Snowden. The Oscar-winning director will also be a part of the fireside chat, but rather than beaming in from Moscow, according to Deadline he'll be joining from New York. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between being wanted by the federal government and making a movie about someone wanted by the federal government.
Edward Snowden held a secret chat with the actor portraying him
Many actors in biographical movies will interview the real people they're portraying to get a feel for their mannerisms and values. However, Joseph Gordon-Leavitt is going the extra mile to make sure that he's correctly representing NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone's upcoming movie. The star has revealed to The Guardian that he held a secret, four-hour meeting with Snowden in Russia to understand the fugitive. How secret? Gordon-Leavitt was not only advised to avoid recording the conversation, but (for a while) to avoid even acknowledging that it took place -- not surprising when the US likely wants to watch Snowden's every move.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play Edward Snowden in forthcoming NSA movie
When you're making a movie based on one of the biggest stories in recent years, and centered around one pretty normal-looking data administrator, really got to get the casting right. Maybe Oliver Stone's pulled it off. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who you might remember from well, all these movies, will be playing Edward Snowden in the director's forthcoming movie. In case you forgot why, Snowden leaked a whole lot of classified documents in 2013, which lead to widespread criticism over the NSA's data-gathering methods - from world leaders and Joe Internet alike. The screenplay is based on two books: The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena, which points to a substantial amount of screen time for whoever plays the whistleblower. The movie goes into production in January next year. [Image credit: John Sciulli/Getty Images, AFP/Getty Images]
Scarface Limited Edition Blu-ray says hello September 6th (trailer)
Yet another classic arrives in HD this fall when Universal releases the Scarface Special Limited Edition Blu-ray. It's getting a premium treatment too, with Steelbook packaging, 7.1 DTS-HD MA audio, art cards, and even the 1932 original version of Scarface on DVD. Universal's packed in the extras on the disc too, including a couple of U-control add-ons that keep track of both F-bombs dropped and bullets fired, plus picture-in-picture breakdowns with director Brian De Palma, Al Pacino, Screenwriter Oliver Stone and more. Check after the break for the press release with all the details -- except price, and it's not on Amazon yet either.
Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann extoll the virtues of Blu-ray, Stone suggests stocking up (video)
Panasonic took a break from its usual CES business this afternoon to host the inaugural directors' panel at the show (in conjunction with 20th Century Fox), where the unexpected trio of Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Baz Luhrmann showed up to talk about technology in Hollywood, and Blu-ray in particular. As you might expect, the general theme was that Blu-ray is great, but the directors certainly weren't shy to make their opinions known. While Mann said that Blu-ray would be the "premier format for six, seven or eight years," for instance, he also took a moment to reminisce about the photochemical process used on Last of the Mohicans, which he notes still can't be fully replicated on Blu-ray. Luhrmann also talked at length about the great colors Blu-ray allows, and stated simply that "it's better," before picking a fight with a noisy booth next door. Oliver Stone was unsurprisingly the most opinionated, however, and lamented the fact that Blu-ray will be "last hardware" in the face of digital distribution. He even suggested that people should "be different, go against the grain" and collect Blu-rays, which he says will be very valuable by 2050 or so in much the way comics and baseball cards are today. On a more general note, Stone also said that watching kids try to watch a movie on a computer screen and multitask so much these days is "very depressing to me" and that, in a way, "we are the last of the Mohicans." Richard Lawler contributed to this report. Update: Now with video! Check it out after the break to hear their words directly. %Gallery-113321%
