Joseph Gordon-Levitt To Play NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden In New Oliver Stone Film

After months of rumors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been confirmed as the actor who will play Edward Snowden in an upcoming movie directed by Oliver Stone.

Producers of the as-yet unnamed film about the former National Security Agency contractor confirmed the casting decision Monday, according to The Guardian. Gordon-Levitt, 33, has previously starred in big-name films like "Inception," "Lincoln," and "The Dark Knight Rises."

Stone, the Oscar-winning director of “Midnight Express," “Platoon” and "Born on the Fourth of July," wrote the screenplay for the movie and is expected to start filming in January, Reuters reports. The screenplay is said to be based on two books about Snowden: “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” by Guardian journalist Luke Harding and “Time of the Octopus,” a novel by Anatoly Kucherena.

Stone’s film isn’t the only Snowden flick that's been making headlines of late. Another fictional adaptation, based on the book “No Place to Hide” by journalist Glenn Greenwald, formerly of The Guardian, is also in the works. That film will be produced by James Bond producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

Last month, Laura Poitras, the documentary film director who Snowden contacted in 2013, released her film about the whistleblower. The documentary, “Citizenfour,” has been met with critical success.

Snowden was launched into the global spotlight in 2013 when he leaked classified NSA documents to the media, thus blowing the whistle on the U.S. government’s mass surveillance program and data collection efforts.

Snowden spent more than five weeks in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport last year after fleeing the U.S. He currently lives in an undisclosed location in Russia.