Lord Of War,billed as one of the biggest independent features currently in production inthe world, has relocated to South Africa after two weeks of shooting in NewYork.

Executive producer and Arclight Films managing director GaryHamilton says he has already sold the US$50m action thriller starring NicolasCage and Ethan Hawke into "virtually every territory in the world."

Buyers include Momentum (UK), Gaga (Japan), M6 (France),MGM-UA (Germany), Columbia TriStar (Spain), Italian International Film (Italy),Scanbox (Scandinavia), and Hoyts/MGM-UA (Australia).

Lord Of War isproduced by Philippe Rousselet and written and directed by Andrew Niccol. Itexplores how enormous quantities of arms from former Soviet states suddenlybecame available to developing countries, especially in Africa, at the end ofthe Cold War. Cage plays a character developed from Niccol's research intoseveral arms dealers who made vast sums of money as a result.

"It is a controversial and amazing film destined to beone of the most talked about from mid 2005," says Hamilton.

The film sees Rousselet partnered with Andrew Niccol innewly formed EMC (Entertainment Manufacturing Company), Ascendant Pictures(Chris Roberts and Chris Eberts) in association with VIP3 Medienfonds (Andreas Schmidand Andreas Grosch) and Saturn Films (Nicolas Cage and Norm Golightly), inassociation with Endgame Entertainment.

Niccol wrote TheTruman Show and the Spielberg film Terminal,and wrote and directed Gattaca and Simone.

Topics