Whistleblowing

Russian spy novels and secret meetings: How Oliver Stone made the “Snowden” film

Acclaimed director Oliver Stone, the man behind Oscar-winning films like Born on the Fourth of July and Wall Street, is readying to release the first—and perhaps the definitive—biopic on American whistleblower Edward Snowden. Snowden, which is slated for US release on Sept. 16, tells the tale of how Snowden came to unearth and subsequently leak details about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance on the American public.

As it turns out, the story of how the movie was financed and filmed is almost as amazing as Snowden’s, revealed an article by Irina Aleksander published in the New York Times Magazine Aug. 30.

• The film is “based on” a Russian spy novel that Stone paid $1 million to option in order to get access to the whistleblower himself, according to Stone’s reported account...