On June 2, 2014, it was announced that Oliver Stone and Moritz Borman acquired the rights to the book The Snowden Files by Luke Harding and Stone would write and direct a film based on the book. On June 10, 2014, Stone acquired the rights to another book, Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena.
Stone would use both books as the sources to write the screenplay. On November 6, 2014, Open Road Films acquired the U.S. rights to the film, while the Wild Bunch was set to handle foreign sales.Deadline confirmed on November 10, 2014 that Endgame Entertainment had boarded the film to produce.