Watch: Oliver Stone Warns America in Menacing ‘Snowden’ Teaser

Leave it to Oliver Stone to celebrate Christmas with an international thriller centered on controversial whistleblower Edward Snowden.

After his last film, “Savages,” turned out to be one of the biggest critical punching bags of 2012, there’s a lot riding on “Snowden” to restore Stone’s directorial clout with critics and audiences. Luckily, the political reality of Snowden and NSA surveillance seems tailor-made for the filmmaker behind historical dramas like “Platoon,” “Nixon” and “JFK.”

While the debut teaser above doesn’t show any of the principle cast — Joseph Gordon Levitt, Nicolas Cage, Melissa Leo, Zachary Quinto and Shailene Woodley — its ominous music and bold tagline (“One nation, under surveillance, for liberty and justice for all”) clearly set the tone for what should be an intense drama.

Open Road Films will release “Snowden” on December 25.

READ MORE: Oliver Stone’s ‘Snowden’ Begins Filming, Stars Gordon-Levitt and Woodley