A TV screen shows a news report of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, at a shopping mall in Hong Kong on June 23, 2013. (Photo: CRIENGLISH.com/Imagine China)

 Four Hong Kong filmmakers have made the first film on Edward Snowden.

The amateur filmmakers shot the film in just under a week on a shoestring budget.

They none-the-less managed to feature all the major locations in the story, even casting a friend of a friend who is said to bear uncanny resemblance to Snowden - after a haircut of course.

Entitled "Verax", after Snowden's code name, the short re-imagines the build up to Snowden's revelations on the operations of the NSA, for whom he was contracted as an IT technician.

Cinematographer Edwin Lee told the press that the four are all awaiting a YouTube hit from the man himself.

The film has been published on YouTube.

"The Quiet American" director Phillip Noyce recently said that he was already planning to shoot a film about Snowden, with Liam Hemsworth in the starring role.

But sadly for Noyce, he can no longer claim to be the first.