Oliver Stone’s Snowden gets Christmas release and Rhys Ifans joins the cast

Filming has official began on Oliver Stone’s Edward Snowden movie, SNOWDEN. The film has even been given the Christmas day release date where it joins the POINT BREAK remake, the Will Smith drama CONCUSSION, David O. Russell’s film JOY starring Jennifer Lawrence, Monster Trucks, and Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. Also, Alejandro Inarritu’s THE REVENANT will have a limited release that day. So as you can see, it’s going to busy and it’s likely some of these movies will spread out or change altogether.

It’s not known if SNOWDEN will get the limited release treatment as well but something tells me it will in order to avoid the box office onslaught that will ultimately close out the year (STAR WARS will certainly still be riding high). Adding to the already stellar cast is Rhys Ifans and Joely Richardson in unspecified roles. We know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars plays Snowden and Shailene Woodley is his girlfriend. Melissa Leo will play Laura Poitras, Zachary Quinto is journalist Glenn Greenwald, and Tom Wilkinson is Ewen McAskill. Yesterday we told you that Timothy Olyphant will play the CIA agent who befriended Snowden before he fled to Russia.

Like most Oliver Stone movies, this one is sure to get some attention as production rolls on. Sadly, I can’t say I’ve really enjoyed any of his movies in the last decade or more, so I’m hoping we see a return to form with this film. With material as controversial and confrontational as this, I’m going to be optimistic.