Joseph Gordon-Levitt may play Edward Snowden for director Oliver Stone

Joseph Gordon-Levitt has a lot of projects going on right now. Aside from his HitRecord series and website, the actor/director is filming XMAS with Seth Rogen and just wrapped THE WALK for director Robert Zemeckis. All of this as well as developing his version of Neil Gaiman‘s SANDMAN which he may direct and star in. So, why not throw in a project with Oliver Stone during his downtime?

Deadline reports that Gordon-Levitt is Oliver Stone‘s choice to headline his adaptation of the novel TIME OF THE OCTOPUS. Based on the accounts of NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s lawyer in Russia, the film would be another Stone conspiracy theory/polticial thriller films along the lines of JFK or W. Not to be completely biased, Stone has also optioned the non-fiction book The Snowden Files: The Inside Story Of The World’s Most Wanted Man, a book by Guardian journalist Luke Harding.

Gordon-Levitt shares a passing resemblance to Snowden and the story is still a very hot button topic in the media and many Americans. This is definitely fertile ground for telling a powerful story, but it could also end up like the Benedict Cumberbatch starring film THE FIFTH ESTATE about WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange. Oliver Stone has been very hit or miss for years now, but hopefully this film will be a strong one.