YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Nicolas Cage has joined the cast of “Snowden,” Oliver Stone’s take on the Edward Snowden whistleblower story.

Cage will play the role of a former U.S. Intelligence Official in the thriller.

As reports “Armenpress” citing variety.com, Laura Poitras’ “Citizenfour,” a non-fiction treatment on an episode of the Snowden story won the best documentary Academy Award on Sunday night.

Principal photography on “Snowden” is currently underway in Munich and will continue in various locations around the world until mid-May.

The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the title role alongside Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto, Tom Wilkinson, Rhys Ifans, Joely Richardson and Timothy Olyphant.

Stone, Pathe Films and producing partner Moritz Borman acquired the rights last year to two books — “Time of the Octopus,” a novel written by Snowden’s Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, and Luke Harding’s “The Snowden Files, The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” — as sources for Stone’s screenplay. Borman is producing with Eric Kopeloff.

Snowden was charged in 2013 by the U.S. Department of Justice with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property and his passport was revoked a week later by the U.S. Department of State. He was granted temporary asylum by Russia last year.

Previously it was reported that Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone’s big-screen dramatisation of Edward Snowden’s mass surveillance revelations will be released on 25 December, distributor Open Road Films said on Friday.

As reports “Armenpress” citing The Guardian, Snowden will star Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the NSA whistleblower who leaked details of US and British surveillance and electronic monitoring programs.

Filming has begun in Munich and will move to other locations before its expected completion in May.

Shailene Woodley, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto and Tom Wilkinson will also star in the film, adapted from two books, The Snowden Files, by Guardian journalist Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena, Snowden’s lawyer.

Snowden’s disclosures were documented in film-maker Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour, which was released last year and is the favourite to win the best documentary Oscar on Sunday.

The 31-year-old fled to Hong Kong before documents revealing the surveillance programs were published. He now lives in Russia.