Oliver Stone says studios’ boards led to ‘Snowden’ rejection

Academy Award®-winning director Oliver Stone, who brought Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street and JFK to the big screen, tackles the most important and fascinating true story of the 21st century. Director/writer Oliver Stone, left, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt attend the “Snowden” panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. But the discussion veered off-topic when a fan asked what the director and his cast thought of the hugely popular new mobile game.

During the Q&A session, Stone called the app “a new level of invasion”, adding that he believed it could lead to “totalitarianism”.

Following its surge in popularity, many users have pointed out that Pokemon Go calls for access to a user’s entire Google account on iOS, including Global Positioning System and location services, browsing history and even email details. Assuming-probably correctly-that many in the audience already had their app downloaded to their phones, he told the crowd, “they are data mining every person in this room”.

And that’s not taking into account the “erroneous request” that Pokémon Go made upon its launch, requiring full access permission from users signing in through Google. Stone was happy to elaborate.

Tom Currie quit his job in a cafe to travel NZ playing Pokemon Go, and has attracted worldwide attention since. “It’s the newest stage”, he said.

Even if you’ve never met him and have only seen his movies, it seems fair to categorize Oliver Stone as a pretty paranoid dude.