12 October 2013

Glenn Greenwald Shills Snowden to Shysters

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/business/media/hollywood-ponders-movie-on-book-about-snowden.html

Hollywood Ponders Movie on Book About Snowden

By MICHAEL CIEPLY

Published: October 11, 2013

LOS ANGELES — For more than a week, Hollywood has been exploring what could be one of the most difficult nonfiction projects it has ever tried: a proposed film based on the journalist Glenn Greenwald’s planned book about Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive whistle-blower.

As of late Friday, it was not clear that any studio had secured a deal. But 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the cable television powerhouse HBO were among potential buyers that had considered the project, according to several people who were briefed on it, but spoke on condition of anonymity because of confidentiality strictures.

Mr. Greenwald’s planned book, which is based on his close contact with Mr. Snowden and promises fresh revelations about government and corporate intelligence-gathering, is set for publication next March by Macmillan’s Metropolitan Books imprint.

Fox backed away from the bidding on the film, according to the people briefed on the project, partly because of concerns about its final act. With Mr. Snowden at large in Moscow, where he has been shielded from criminal charges in the United States by a grant of temporary asylum, it was impossible to tell how a film based on his story might end.

Further complexities involved the structure of any proposed deal. Mr. Greenwald is selling the rights to his book and may include his own life rights. But his journalistic collaborator, Laura Poitras, and Mr. Snowden have not put their own life rights for sale, according to the people briefed on the film. That leaves potential buyers to rely on legal precepts of fair use in portraying them, or on their assurances that they will not seek to interfere with a movie.

Putting aside the empathy factor — the public appears to be divided as to whether Mr. Snowden is a hero or a villain — any buyer must also contend with official government fury at Mr. Snowden, who gathered secret information as an employee of and contractor to United States intelligence agencies, then made much of it public in a bid to expose government abuse.

“Zero Dark Thirty,” Sony’s film about the killing of Osama bin Laden, was harshly criticized by Congressional leaders and others incensed by its portrayal of torture by American operatives, and by the filmmakers’ access to intelligence personnel.

Lucy Stille, a New York-based agent who is representing Mr. Greenwald’s book for the Paradigm agency, declined on Friday to discuss the project. Spokesmen for Fox, Sony and HBO declined to comment. Representatives of The Guardian, a British newspaper in which many of Mr. Snowden’s revelations were first published, also declined to comment.

At Sony, Barbara Broccoli, a producer known for her involvement with James Bond films, has been involved with the proposed project, according to the people who described it. Ms. Broccoli did not respond to queries on Friday.

Brooks Barnes contributed reporting from Los Angeles, and Christine Haughney from New York.