Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ Release Pushed Back...Again

Last year Open Road Films pushed the release date of Oliver Stone’s Snowden back from Christmas, where it would have had to compete with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and a handful of Oscar contenders, to May 2016. That wasn’t exactly a vote of confidence for the film based on the life of famed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, and it would have forced Stone’s latest to contend with Captain America: Civil War. Snowden will no longer have to worry about Marvel, as the film has once again been pushed back, this time to early fall.

Variety reports that Open Road has shifted Snowden’s release date from May 13 to September 16, which seems more appropriate for Stone’s drama, which will now only have to contend with Nerve (a thriller from the directors of Catfish) and When the Bough Breaks (starring Regina Hall). It may also have some competition in Clint Eastwood’s Sully, the story of hero pilot Sully Sullenberger, starring Tom Hanks — that film hits theaters one week before Snowden.

Stone’s film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who became the subject of Laura Poitras’ riveting documentary Citizenfour. Shailene Woodley plays his girlfriend, with Zachary Quinto as former Guardian journalist and Snowden confidante Glenn Greenwald, and Melissa Leo as Poitras. The film also stars Nicolas Cage, Tom Wilkinson and Timothy Olyphant.

Here’s the first official trailer, which was released last summer and doesn’t really show us much: