Djimon Hounsou finds Blood Diamond in December
The word is Warner Bros. has finally set a December 15 release date for the highly anticipated movie ” Blood Diamond”. This comes as a surprise for me considering the pressure they’ve been getting from the Diamond industry about how the movie will hurt holiday sales of diamonds. The movie has been talked about for at least the past year, with people on all sides jockeying for position on the issue conflict diamonds. Though the movie stars Djimon Housou, one of my favorite actors, I’m skeptical about the portrayal of Africans. Having read an early script myself, I am not sure if the movie will do justice to the topic of conflict diamonds nor will it help the image of Africans in the public eye. At first reading the movie seems to be another attempt at hollywood to dumb down an important topic, but I’m reminded by a movie industry expert that scripts can be changed during production. By sticking to their original plans to release the movie during the holidays and not pushing it to the diamond industry proposed release date of January 2007, Warner Bros. is obviously confident about the star power – Leonardo Dicaprio plays the lead character – , pr controversy, and possible academy award nominations to push box office sales. The diamond industry in hopes of saving face have also got some star power of their own, partnering with Nelson Mandela to lend credibility to their efforts to change their business tactics. Despite my pessimism about the movie itself, I’m interested to see how this will play out in the coming months. Check back here for updates.
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