Oliver Stone announced that he will direct an adaptation of a book by a journalist at The Guardian on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Oliver Stone, the Director of the films "Platoon," "Natural Born Killers" and "JFK" will direct a big budget adaptation of the Edward Snowden NSA whistleblowing story.

Variety reported that Oliver Stone will write the screenplay and direct the upcoming Edward Snowden movie. Stone plans to adapt "The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man," a book by Guardian journalist Luke Harding.

The Stone film will have some competition. Last month, Sony Pictures bought the rights to Glenn Greenwald's "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA and the U.S. Surveillance State." The Sony movie will be produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the team behind James Bond movies.

Oliver Stone will produce the movie with his regular business partner Moritz Borman, with Harding and other Guardian journalists serving as production and story consultant. Stone bought the rights to journalist Luke Harding's exposé The Snowden Files, The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man. Snowden leaked the NSA documents to Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald in June 2013. Shooting is set to begin by the end of the year.

in a press conference at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, Stone said "To me, Snowden is a hero because he revealed secrets that we should all know, that the United States has repeatedly violated the Fourth Amendment."

Edward Snowden was a systems administrator for the CIA and a counterintelligence trainer at the Defense Intelligence Agency. He later worked for the National Security Agency. Snowden leaked thousands of classified documents in an act that has been called the biggest government leak since Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers.

In a statement today, Stone said the Snowden story is "one of the greatest stories of our time. A real challenge. I'm glad to have the Guardian working with us."

Snowden fled the U.S. and is currently living in Russia and trying unsuccessfully to find a place to live in other countries.

"The story of Edward Snowden is truly extraordinary," Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of the Guardian announced, "and the unprecedented revelations he brought to light have forever transformed our understanding of, and relationship with, government and technology. We're delighted to be working with Oliver Stone and Moritz Borman on the film.

The Edward Snowden film will join such whistleblowing films as "Silkwood, " On The Waterfront," "All The President's Men," "Serpico," "Erin Brockovich," "The Insider," "Michael Clayton," "The Whistleblower" and "The Fifth Estate."