Samuel L. Jackson Negotiating with African Pirates

Friday

08May2009

Samuel L. Jackson Negotiating with African Pirates

Friday, May 8, 2009 at 2:03AM

Wow. This is going to burn the producers of Law & Order. As if ripped from today's headlines, Samuel L. Jackson will produce a film based on the life of Andrew Mwangura, a negotiator between African pirates and the vessels they hijack.

In addition to producing, Variety points out that Jackson also plans to star as Mwangura, who runs the Seafarers' Assistance Programme. Despite his incredible work for those efforts, Mwangura doesn't earn a salary as a negotiator. He makes his money as a freelance journalist, which could also factor into the movie, at least to flesh out the character.

How interesting is this: Andras Hamori, whose H20 pictures is co-producing the film with Jackson's Uppity Pictures, ironed out the deal with Mwangura while he was negotiating the safe release of the crew and cargo of a Ukrainian freighter. Wow, that guy is good at his job. Oh, by the way, the going rate for freedom these days is apparently $3.4 million if you're a crew on a Ukrainian ship.

"(Andrew) has the trust of the pirates and the ship owners," notes Hamori, "and his loyalty is to the kidnapped crews that get caught in the middle of these episodes." Pirates trust him? That guy rules.

Colin Boyd |

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