Angelina Jolie’s imminent divorce from Brad Pitt has put the realization of ‘Africa’, a movie about environmentalist Ricard Leakey efforts to conserve wildlife in Kenya and his conflicts with poachers, in doubt.
Several parts of the movie were set to be shot in Kenya, an East African nation with scenic landscapes that has previously provide locations for several top movies in the past, including Out of Africa and The First Grader.
Jolie was set to direct the movie which would have starred Pitt, but the collapse of their two-year marriage has put an end to the eagerly-awaited film.
“Angelina is not obsessed with developing movies as Brad is and will take time off,” a source close to the John Peters, a veteran producer who was to co-produce the movie with Jolie toldHeat Street.
Pitt was to act Leakey, who is one of the world’s most renowned wildlife conservationists,FilmContact.com reported.
The Hollywood actress-cum director applied for divorce from Pitt earlier this month, ending a 12-year rocky union, E! Online reported.
Leakey had expressed confidence that the movie would be shot in Kenya after allegations that it was set to be shot in South Africa emerged in February.
The decision to shoot the movie in Kenya was set to greatly boost the nation’s appeal to global film-makers, which has lost several movies locations to South Africa.
Westgate, a movie about the terror attack on Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013, was taken to South Africa. Other movies on Kenya were also filmed in the Southern Africa nation.
The Journey is the Destination, a movie on the life of Dan Eldon, an English-born Kenyan photojournalist who was killed in Somalia while working for Reuters, was also shot in South Africa.
South Africa has incentives that have attracted filmmakers, making the nation a better movie destination than Kenya.
The Southern Africa government gives back $2 million to filmmakers on every $10 million spent on making a movie in the nation, Daily Nation reported.
Africa would have improved Kenya’s rating as a movie destination. The nation provided locations for several top movies in the past.
Jolie wrote to the Kenyan government last year, requesting to shoot majority of the scenes in the country, Tuko reported.
Some of the movies are, The Tomb Raider partly shot at Amboseli National Park and Hell’s Gate, The First Grader which told the story of Kimani Maruge, a Kenyan who became the world’s oldest pupil at the age of 84 and Rise and Fall of Idi Amin, the late Ugandan authoritarian ruler renowned for his brutality while in power.
