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):