Forest Whitaker Latest Film Deals With Uganda's Child Soldiers

Forest Whitaker Says He's Got 3 Projects He Plans To Direct; One Dealing With Uganda's Child Soldiers | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | indieWIRE.

Forest Whitaker as General Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland

Forest Whitaker has a number of films he plans to direct, one of particular interest is 'Better Angel's'. Better Angels is a film close to Whitaker's heart and focuses on the child soldiers of Northern Uganda. In 2007 Whitaker won an academy award for his performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 2006 film The Last King of Scotland.

Pre-production for his film is expected to begin in April of this year, and Child Troopers director Ebony Butler, is hoping to be involved with the making of the film.

Better Angels, although a fiction film, has many similarities with our documentary Child Troopers. Both have common themes based on events and situations that arose from the LRA conflict, that has seen over 30,000 children abducted and forced to become child soldiers.

Child Troopers in Production in New York

Child Troopers director Ebony Butler has taken her human rights documentary project to the United States of America, where she has found a whole new host of supporters and interested parties.

Ebony is currently working from Hollywood Los Angeles with her local crew where she is working on Child Troopers second phase of production. She is also being mentored by some leading industry players. The impressive list of international film and TV professionals she has mustered include Shine Global CEO Mark Fennessy and Australian born, LA based director Rod Hardy. Ebony’s has 5 official mentors who have each signed on as industry specific advisors to the young director for her debut feature documentary film Child Troopers, slated for release in 2012.

As of next week Ebony will leave Los Angeles for New York and Washington DC where she has scheduled in meetings and on camera interviews with some of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations, NGO‘S, political figures and other child soldier and human rights lobby groups. The line up includes: the United Nations, Human Rights Watch,Amnesty International, OXFAM and Resolve (formerly known as Resolve Uganda). There are a number of other key players, analysts and experts in the arena of international and African politics, American foreign policy and geopolitics set to meet with Ebony over the next month to discuss her film and offer unique insights into the conflict in Uganda and beyond.

We will be back with more information about the progress Ebony and her crew are making soon.

Excited times ahead so stay tuned and if you like what we are doing please sign up to our blog and share this with friends or on your favorite social networking site!

Please also join us on twitter @atlanticstar233 and on facebook at facebook.com/childtroopers

Friends and supporters we thank you for your dedication & ongoing support of our work and we hope you can help us get the word out about Child Troopers and our sister project Bikes 4 Life.

We search tirelessly to find answers and solutions for peace and the protection of our worlds most vulnerable women and children and we always need extra people to help with our cause! SO if you are interested in joining our advocacy, social media, design, PR or fundraising team please shoot us an email or give us a call…  Or if you have a special something that you think would be good for our campaign, and you’d like to share it with us, feel free to email us atinfo@atlanticstarproductions.com and give us the low down!

Remember: PEACE is the New Frontier AND The Truth is Out There!

James Marsh's Project Nim - Sundance Documentary Hit

Icon's Project Nim sales include Le Pacte for France

13 May, 2011 | By Wendy Mitchell

Icon Entertainment International has done a raft of deals on James Marsh’s Sundance hit documentary Project Nim.

Le Pacte have taken all rights for France and Sacher Distribuzione and Feltrinelli Editore have taken all rights for Italy. Other deals include Mongrel for Canada, Against Gravity for Poland, Lusomundo for Portugal, Odeon for Greece and Prime Pictures for the Middle East.

After the Sundance premiere, HBO and Roadside Attractions took US rights.

Icon will distribute the film in the UK, Ireland and Australia and New Zealand.

Project Nim is about a chimpanzee who was nurtured like a human child in a 1970s experiment.

The film screens again here in Cannes Market on Sunday.

BBC Films and the UK Film Council Present a Red Box Films Production in association with Passion Pictures. Directed by James Marsh. Produced by Simon Chinn. Executive Producers are John Battsek, Nick Fraser, Hugo Grumbar, Jamie Laurenson, Andrew Ruhemann.

Icon Entertainment International’s slate also includes spoof The Biggest Movie of all Time 3D, James Wan’s House of Horror, Mel Gibson’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation and Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus.