Thursday, September 06, 2007

From Hollywood, with Love...

Thank god there is more in this world than the Middle East. So today a posting about my beloved Bosnia, where I lived for about eight years.

And it is a funky story. Because me and four journalist friends tried, in 2000, to catch Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic. You might remember this fascist asshole - responsible for the killing and cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in the '90s. We didn't get Karadzic (Nor the 5 million dollar bounty), but we came pretty close (At least closer than the UN or NATO).

The hilarious part of it all is that Hollywood picked up the story and made a 40 million dollar movie about it called The Hunting Party. The main actor in the movie is nobody less than Richard Gere. And yes, I had to get a picture of me and Gere while we met at the set in Sarajevo.

The movie is currently shown to the public at the Venice Film Festival and will open today, Friday, in Los Angeles and as of September 14th in the rest of the US. Europe and other parts of the world will follow soon.

During shooting of the movie we, me and my four journalist friends, met Richard Gere and the other main actors, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg. All were actually really nice guys.

To spice it up a little, the five of us were invited by director Richard Shepard to play a very small role in two scenes. Man, acting ain't easy even if you only have three lines. But anyway, it was a great (though nerve wrecking) experience.

My buddy Philippe Deprez (one of the journalists) is currently in Venice to check the movie out, so I will hear from him if it is actually any good. As I am in Beirut, I haven't seen the movie yet. But I've been told our scene wasn't cut out. See below the trailer of The Hunting Party:

The movie is very, very loosely based on our real story. That doesn't matter though. It is already a huge honour for a journalist, especially if you're from a rather anonymous place like the Netherlands, when Hollywood picks up your story. Watch below Richard Gere on The Late Show talking to David Letterman about the movie:



To me the trailer looks great and I hope the movie is as good. I can't wait to see The Hunting Party. And I hope you will do the same. That said: Real life and Hollywood, unfortunately, differ. Karadzic still hasn't been caught. But I would love to see The Hunting Party II. Revenge is a strong motivator. So to everybody...Keep on hunting! (Karadzic is the right prick on this picture, Ratko Mladic the other one)

Here is a link to the story behind our Hunting Party.

This get's you to the official website of the movie.

Sarajevo Siege:

Miss Sarajevo (U2 and Pavarotti...who sadly passed away on Thursday):

29 comments:

Unknown said...

If it is kinda "about you", your hunt for Radovan, and if you even act a little in that move then I REALLY GOT TO go and see that movie.

Hudsonstr Komsija

Anonymous said...

yeah, life goes strange ways.

i am amazed that the sarajevo videoclip still exists. i have lost my copy, but if i'm not mistaken it was made by the guys from wtn.

actually i still wonder if the guy on the bike was me. if so, it was fully armoured.

well, memories go strange ways too.

Anonymous said...

ps: for any sarajevo fan here is one totally surreal vid. zivjeli nadrealisti.

www.pefs.us/viewvideo.php?id=iCCvomZl8M4

Anonymous said...

I love the part where Richard Gere calls you guys 'the three stooges'
Cool, though. We'll go see the movie once it gets here

Best wishes,
Bastienne (en Erwin)

Harald Doornbos said...

@ abspam

Dragi Komsija! Otkud ti??! Super. Hajde, sali me poruka na moja email adresa: haraldmarkd@yahoo.com

Velika pozdrav...

Harald Doornbos said...

@ mp

Its such a pity that digital camera's didn't exist during the Bosnian war. Man, we could have shot amazing stuff. cheers and thanks for reply you bike reporter...

Anonymous said...

Are you in the trailer? The guy in the helicopter?

Anonymous said...

great story, good plot. Hunter Thompson gone manhunting! Great work!

(http://www.sargasso.nl/archief/2007/09/07/van-sarajevo-naar-hollywood/)

Anonymous said...

Sorry to intrude, but this link describes the ordeal a bit better:

findingkaradzic.blogspot

Remembering the post on your blog about the Audi, I did smile big about this part:

"The most enthusiastic was Harald, an intensely hyperactive Dutchman. "It's perfect," he said. "And of course we can take my car."

This was enough to give all of us pause. In his eight years in the Balkans, Harald had gone through twenty-eight cars, and while it was true that outright crashes had claimed only fifteen or sixteen of these--Harald could not recall the precise number-his propensity for driving the winding mountain roads of Bosnia at seventy miles an hour made being his passenger a
horrifying experience."


Anyway, great story, but sad justice is not served (yet).

Anonymous said...

yeah, we could have used some of those cams before kosovo.

but, what use are they when the beep doesn't give your tapes back once they've copied them...

anyways... we will make more of that asset. (and you have already started.)

Anonymous said...

As an HTLM n00b, the link was not correctly displayed. Hence the '/"

correct link to findingkaradzic blogspot

Harald Doornbos said...

@ Olaf

Thanks for the link!

Anonymous said...

@Harald, zou je ergens in oktober tijd hebben voor een interview in Beiroet? Bij De Nieuwe Reporter willen ze van alles weten over de film, en het succes van je blog. Let me know!

Anonymous said...

The first three minutes of the movie are online @ http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/09/20/the-hunting-party-the-first-three-minutes/#more-4739

Harald Doornbos said...

@ erik
thanks for pointing out!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

OUhleu Your blog is great. Articles is interesting!

Anonymous said...

iqyMbQ Please write anything else!

Anonymous said...

Magnific!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to author.

Anonymous said...

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

Anonymous said...

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

Anonymous said...

Hello all!

Anonymous said...

actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.

Anonymous said...

ng8OY0 Magnific!

Anonymous said...

Magnific!

Anonymous said...

♥ WWW . E Z O C A M . C O M ♥ WORLD'S LARGEST FREE To JOIN NOW !! - 24 Hrs "LiVE" ViDEO CHAT SEXIEST SOCIAL HUGE COMMUNITY Site ! JOIN In The FUN NOW !★ http://WWW.EZOCAM.COM



★ WWW . E Z O C A M . C O M ★ HAVE YOU GUYS MISSED OUT ON INTERNET LARGEST Video CAM CHAT COMMUNITY SiTE ?!? IT'S FREE to JOIN NOW !♥ GUARANTEE to THRILL YOU if Not You must be a BANANA !! GO CHECK IT OUT at ( www.EZOCAM.COM )




♥ !Over 2 Millions Users & Growing !! MoreOver Lot of Really Attractive MODELS Online now 24 hRS 7 days ! -★ www.EZOCAM.COM ★





★ www.PASSIONEL.COM ★ >> FREE to JOIN Also ! POPULAR LARGEST DATING SITE , With Free Blogging , Area Search Features
, More than 3 Millions Members & Growing too >> ★ Join Free @ ★ www.PASSIONEL.COM ★