Weekend Economists Silent Night Christmas Eve 2014

[Demeter]

28. Sony Hack: Clooney Says Movie is about Snowden, Not Journalism

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/12/22/sony-hack-snowden-movie-sausage-gets-made-thrown-away/

As curious journalists, tabloid writers, and Hollywood watchers pore over the massive trove of hacked Sony data, the public is being given a rare glimpse into the complicated world of Hollywood and politics. Tucked between bitchy emails about Angelina Jolie and snarky comments on Will Smith’s family are details of a chummy relationship between Sony executives and the CIA, as well as rare insight into how Hollywood views potential movies about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Sony’s plan to make a Snowden movie got rolling in January 2014, when Elizabeth Cantillon, then an executive producer at Sony, sent company Co-Chairman Amy Pascal an email saying she had successfully closed on the rights to the book, “No Place to Hide,” by The Intercept‘s founding editor, Glenn Greenwald. “You will be my Oscar date,” Cantillon promised Pascal. In March of 2014, Sony officially optioned the rights to Greenwald’s book, which chronicles how he broke the Snowden story, and moved forward with plans for a movie. A month later, Pascal sent an email to a fellow Sony executive with the “fabulous slate” of tentative movie releases. The “Snowden movie” would be scheduled for 2016, between Pineapple Express 2 and the comic book film Bloodshot. Greenwald’s agreement with Sony gave him “creative input” and “final approval” on the press release for the movie.

A draft of the release was sent to a senior executive in Sony’s Government Affairs office, Keith Weaver, who offered a few “concerns/edits” before they were sent to Greenwald. Weaver was concerned about how Sony described U.S. government spying. Weaver wrote:

1. In the first sentence of the second paragraph – delete the phrase “illegal spying” and either it sic simply as “operations” or replace it with “intelligence gathering” — so the clause would read “U.S. government’s intelligence gathering operations.”

2. In the second sentence of the second paragraph — delete the “phrase misuse of power” and replace it with “actions” or “activities” so that it would read “The NSA’s actions” or “the NSA’S activities.”

Weaver was also concerned about how the draft quoted Greenwald as saying, “Growing up, I was heavily influenced by political films, and am excited about the opportunity to be a part of a political film that will resonate with today’s moviegoers.” Weaver, who would go on to be a key figure in the damage control team on Sony’s The Interview, wondered in the same email whether Sony wanted Greenwald to describe it as a “political film.”

“That’s really more of PR point so up to you guys — and I suspect since it is his own quote Greeenwald will feel strongly,” the Sony executive wrote.

The final version of the press release took Weaver’s suggestions on toning down the language on NSA, but let Greenwald’s quote stand (Greenwald, when asked about the emails, says he was “unaware, but am not surprised, that an internal Sony lobbyist diluted the press release draft in order to avoid upsetting the government.”) By June, however, Sony’s plans hit a roadbump when a rival Snowden movie production was announced. Oliver Stone and his long-time producing partner Mortiz Borman acquired the rights to Luke Harding’s “The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Wanted Man” and “Time of the Octopus,” a novel written by Snowden’s former lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena...

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