12 Upcoming Movies That Are Destined To Be Divisive

9. Snowden

When news broke in 2013 of former CIA employee and National Security Agency contractee Edward Snowden’s leaking of documents relating to the USA’s questionably invasive surveillance techniques the computer genius divided opinion – was he a hero acting in the interests of freedom of information and human rights or a dangerous traitor and threat to his nation?

Oliver Stone, whose other forays into controversial American politics include conspiracy thriller JFK and presidential biopic Nixon, will transfer the incident to the big screen in upcoming biography Snowden – a film that could be as controversial as the events that inspired it. And the director is bound to bring some of the divisive controversy that pretty much seems to be part of his creative repertoire again.

Starring Joseph Gordon Levitt as the titular whistle-blower, the film is based on the books Time of the Octopus, a fictional retelling of the events penned by Snowden’s own lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, and The Snowden Files by Guardian foreign correspondent Luke Harding – a book both simultaneously lauded and lambasted by critics and readers. With such a hotly debated political event at its core and contentious source material as its base, Snowden is bound to divide opinion beyond just cinema-goers.