Stone told Reuters that he initially did not want to make the film and was not seeking trouble. However, after meeting with Snowden in Russia, the renowned 70-year-old director, known for movies like "JFK", "Natural Born Killers", and "Wall Street", changed his mind. Despite concerns about the film being boring, Stone saw it as a compelling thriller rather than a documentary. He believed that it would not attract an audience as a documentary-type film. "Snowden" follows Snowden's transformation from a conservative CIA agent to a disillusioned NSA operative who eventually fled the United States in 2013 and exposed the government's mass surveillance programmes targeting ordinary citizens. He currently resides in Russia and is being sought by the US government for espionage allegations. Amnesty International and two other organizations recently started a campaign advocating for his pardon. Stone and Snowden had several meetings in Russia where they agreed that the film would be a dramatization. However, the project faced obstacles when Stone sought financing from studios, though he did not disclose which ones. "We are in a society where self-censorship is prevalent," Stone stated. "I don't think the NSA directly told anyone not to make this film. It's more about conforming or being left out." Eventually, Open Road Films, a collaboration between Regal Entertainment Group and AMC Entertainment, who distributed "Spotlight", decided to co-finance "Snowden" which cost around $40 million. The movie, which features Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Snowden and Shailene Woodley as his girlfriend Lindsay Mills, was primarily filmed in Europe, with Germany offering production subsidies and serving as a stand-in for Maryland, Snowden's home state. Despite the challenges of making a film about computer coding and programmers engaging for audiences, director Stone managed to create excitement by focusing on understanding the world. Key scenes were shot in Washington DC and Hawaii, with Gordon-Levitt and Woodley even acting out a date scene in front of the White House. The director laughed and said that if you're going to take a risk in the US, you might as well go all out.