"Salt" helmer eyes Liam Hemsworth for Edward Snowden movie

PanARMENIAN.Net - Salt and Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce has expressed an interest in making a movie about Edward Snowden, the former CIA worker who exposed US authorities' data-gathering PRISM programme, Digital Spy said.

Noyce said that the story of Snowden, who is currently in Moscow seeking asylum, interests him because it is "a movie that's playing out before our eyes, even though we can't see anything".

"We can't see the hero or the villain - the central character," he told NBC News. "Like my last big movie, Salt, it's a story where you're not quite certain if you're dealing with a heroine or a villain. And we may not be certain until the end of the movie or even beyond that.

"That's a beautiful duality to deal with when you're making a story or watching a movie. You can speculate he's motivated by complete unselfish motives through belief in protecting worldwide public interests. Or you can speculate he was himself a victim of knowing that notoriety might bring him immortality."

Liam Hemsworth, who plays Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games, is Noyce's pick to play Snowden in his proposed film.

"He's perfectly positioned as a rising star," the Australian filmmaker said. "I think he'll probably be one of the great ones. His older brother, Chris, could also play him but Liam looks more like an everyman. I think he'd be perfect."

Noyce added that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would feature in the film, and it would begin with The Guardian's revelation that Snowden is the leak.

"We'd have this wonderful Harold Lloyd comedy sequence which is the best part of the movie - the chase," he explained. "In this case, it's a chase that's both funny and serious. It involves some of the highest officials in the world, and their different points of view while Mr Snowden is holed up presumably at the Moscow Airport.

"That's a great sequence as world leaders argue over this 29-year-old and the merits or otherwise of his actions."