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Richard Gere on trail of Balkans genocide fugitive
By AFP Middle East Times Published September 8, 2006
US actor Richard Gere arrived Thursday in Croatia to begin shooting a Hollywood film about the hunt for Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader and number one Balkans genocide suspect.
Gere will live in a luxury villa in Zagreb while filming Richard Shepard's, Spring Break in Bosnia, in which he plays a journalist trying to seek out the fugitive Karadzic, who is still wanted by international justice.
Filming is due to start Tuesday, with only a few scenes being shot in Croatia and the rest in neighboring Bosnia.
The production company, Scout film, has not revealed who - if anyone - will play Karadzic, who has been on the run since he was charged with genocide in 1995 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
The Bosnian Serb leader is accused of ordering the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, in the worst single atrocity committed in Europe since World War II. He and his associate Ratko Mladic are believed to be hiding somewhere in either Serbia or the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia.
Shepard's film is based on an article written by Scott Anderson, who covered the war for Esquire magazine.
According to the Croatian press, the screenplay sees Gere's journalist character rapidly run into problems with locals who believe he is spying for the CIA.
The star managed to dodge the dozens of journalists awaiting his arrival at Zagreb airport, and told local reporters outside the villa that he was well, but tired and in need of a rest after his journey. Terrence Howard, who plays a supporting role in the film, also arrived in Zagreb Thursday, where he said he was "very happy to be here" and hoped to play his role with the utmost sincerity.
This has angered me for years. Ratko Mladic was in the Australian section of Yugoslavia during the UN troops stay and he was actually given help by UN troops to escape. This has boiled my blood for years.
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