Edward Snowden emerges as a film star

Depending on your point of view (or maybe on whether you're Neil Patrick Harris), Edward Snowdens actions could be read very differently: The former NSA contractor is either, in the end, a dangerous traitor or a laudable hero.

It's that split that makes the 32-year-old a compelling--and increasingly popular--cinematic figure. That popularity is demonstrated by the doc phenomenon "CitizenFour" this season, and now by Snowden, the new Oliver Stone drama that recently began production in Europe with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the title role and Zachary Quinto as muckraking journalist Glenn Greenwald.

How Snowden's decision to leak scores of documents about national surveillance should be interpreted is one of the key moral mysteries of the national security debate, and hardly a clear matter even for some of those telling his story.

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"Im endlessly fascinated by Snowdens decision, his process, his motivation, Quinto told Movies Now. "The vast majority of accounts had it one way or anotherhes either one more traitor or a righteous whistleblower. And the question is, which one is it? Or maybe it's something more complicated than that."

Contemporary news figures in the Snowden vein can make for some weak cinematic sauce (see: Julian Assange movie The Fifth Estate in 2012). Perhaps it's that we grow tired of the cult-of-personality aspects of the story; maybe were just worn out by all the cable-news volleying.

But Snowden is proving resistant to the rule. CitizenFour," in which Laura Poitras offers an unusually intimate look at Snowden and Greenwald in the now-famous Hong Kong hotel room where documents were leaked, scored best documentary at the Oscars on Sunday, notched strong ratings in its initial airing on HBO Monday and was one of the highest-grossing documentaries of 2014 when distributor Radius released it in theaters.

Sony, meanwhile, has bought the rights to Greenwalds book No Place to Hide in the hope of making its own movie, and has set James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli for the project, though whether it still moves forward in the wake of Stones take is an open question.

Stones Snowden"--which is backed by a group of U.S and European companies and will be released by Open Road in December--has plenty going for it. The film features an all-star supporting cast that includes Melissa Leo, Tom Wilkinson, Nicolas Cage and Shailene Woodley, and takes matters beyond the hotel room setting of CitizenFour to the sanctuary Snowden sought in Russia. Basically its about the battle for freedom (for him) and for extradition and prosecution (for the U.S. government).

To tell the tale, the director and producing partner Moritz Borman have acquired the rights to several books, including Luke Hardings The Snowden Files, a Guardian reporters look at the pursuit of Snowden as the story was boiling over in the summer of 2013.

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Edward Snowden emerges as a film star