One of Hollywood’s most controversial directors is expected in town this month to shoot scenes for the Hawaii connection to the biggest national security scandal in decades.
Oliver Stone, a three-time Academy Award winner, has told state film officials he will shoot scenes for his new movie about Edward Snowden, the former Central Intelligence Agency employee who leaked classified documents about anti-terrorism surveillance programs to the media. Among the disclosures: The National Security Agency was collecting millions of records on Americans from U.S. cellphone and Internet companies.
Snowden gathered some of that information while living in Hawaii and working as a contractor with Booz Allen Hamilton at its Bishop Street offices.
Stone is expected to film scenes here in mid-April but it’s not known yet whether he will shoot in Waipahu, where Snowden lived with his girlfriend, dancer Lindsay Mills, before fleeing the country in May 2013. Snowden currently lives in exile in Russia.
Donne Dawson, state film commissioner, said she had only minimal information about the movie.
"I know they are coming and I know we should be receiving some more information from them in a few days," Dawson said. "I don’t know how much they are going to be shooting here. I don’t know who will be here or where they are going to be."
Stone has not sought location support, permits or information about the state’s tax credit program, Dawson said.
"That’s not to say they are not coming," she said. "I think you can assume they will come until you hear otherwise."
"Snowden," which is expected to open in theaters on Christmas Day, has a stellar cast.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("The Dark Knight Rises") will play Snowden. Shailene Woodley ("Divergent," "The Descendants") will play Mills and learned to pole dance for the part, according to entertainment website IMDB.
Also cast are Zachary Quinto ("Star Trek") as journalist Glenn Greenwald, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage and Timothy Olyphant (TV’s "Justified").
DAWSON also confirmed that 20th Century Fox will be in Hawaii as early as next month — but possibly in June — to film some of the Zac Efron movie "Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates."
Dawson met briefly with Fox executives while in Los Angeles in March to pitch the virtues of the states’s tax credits, she said.
According to IMDB, the film is about two brothers who look to the personal ads to find dates for a wedding. Efron ("Neighbors") plays Mike and Adam DeVine ("Pitch Perfect" and Comedy Central’s "Workaholics") plays Dave.
THERE’s been no word on whether "Hawaii Five-0" will return for a sixth season.
A CBS spokeswoman said the decision likely will be announced May 13 when the network unveils its lineup for advertisers. That would be just a few days after the special two-hour Season 5 finale May 8.
Shooting is expected to finish for the season this week, possibly Tuesday.
State officials have not been told if the series will come back, Dawson said.
"I haven’t heard anything official but the scuttlebutt is they are," she said. "Normally we know before they wrap their season."
AND that’s a wrap …
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Mike Gordon is the Star-Advertiser’s film and television writer. Read his Outtakes Online blog at honolulupulse.com. Reach him at 529-4803 or email mgordon@staradvertiser.com.
