Hollywood star Jolie to fete anti-poaching czar Leakey in movie

Popular Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie will direct a “sweeping epic” film about veteran Kenyan conservationist Richard Leakey’s fight with ivory poachers, the studio behind the movie has said.

The Oscar-winning actress whose latest film as director, “Unbroken,” is out in December will go behind the camera once again for “Africa,” with a screenplay by another Oscar winner, Eric Roth.

“I’ve felt a deep connection to Africa and its culture for much of my life,” Jolie said, praising “Forrest Gump” writer Roth’s “beautiful” script.

The film is about “a man drawn into the violent conflict with elephant poachers, who emerged with a deeper understanding of man’s footprint and a profound sense of responsibility for the world around him,” she said.

Leakey, 69, former head of the government’s Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), was key in stemming the rampant poaching of the late 1980s, using extreme measures including sending gunships into national parks.

Kenya’s elephant and rhino populations recovered from the brink of disaster, but more than two decades later, the country is once again facing soaring levels of poaching.

Poachers slaughtered 302 elephants last year compared to 384 in 2012. Nearly 100 elephants have been killed this year, according to official figures.

Conservation groups have repeatedly said KWS is losing the fight against poachers and the organised crime bosses that pay them, and that the country’s famed wildlife key to the nation’s vital tourism economy is on a fast track to destruction.

A campaign group, Kenyans United Against Poaching (Kuapo), has gathered over 20,000 signatures to have President Uhuru Kenyatta “declare poaching a national disaster.”

The new movie for Skydance Productions will be produced by Jolie, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Jon Peters. She will team up again with renowned cinematographer Roger Deakins, who also shot “Unbroken.”

Ellison called Leakey “inspirational,” saying: “‘Africa’ is a story that deserves to be told”. “I know that it will exceed my expectations in Angelina’s hands,” he added.
Jolie is currently directing “By the Sea,” based on her own screenplay and in which she co-stars with her husband Brad Pitt, as well as Melanie Laurent and Niels Arestrup.

“Unbroken” is about Olympian and World War II POW survivor Louis Zamperini. It will be released on December 25 in the United States.

Jolie’s directorial debut feature, 2011’s “In the Land of Blood and Honey” set against the background of the early 1990s Bosnian war, was nominated for a Golden Globe award for best foreign language film.

His efforts have seen him conduct field research and serve as the director of the National Museums of Kenya.

The site says that work at Koobi Fora, where pre-historic fossils were discovered, began after a chance landing in the area led him to believe it held a wealth of fossil deposits.

Together with a team from the NMK, he led the first expedition to Koobi Fora in 1968.

If his book, My Battle to Save Kenya’s Elephants, is anything to go by, Dr Leakey’s movie will truly be epic.

After Dr Leakey was appointed the head of the KWS in 1989, he was no longer able to continue with fieldwork, though he remains interested in paleoanthropology. In 1994, political opposition caused him to leave the KWS, after which he took up politics, serving as Secretary-General of Safina party. In December 1997, he was elected to Parliament.

Dr Richard Leakey continues to lecture on environmental themes and is currently involved in grassroots wildlife conservation projects.