'I will never work with this man again,' Djimon Hounsou, a discovery of Steven Spielberg (Amistad), had said of Shekhar Kapur about two years ago on the eve of the release of the ill-fated The Four Feathers. 'He makes you work day and night under the most difficult circumstances,' Hounsou had complained --with a broad grin.
He will smile again, for he is in negotiations to lead the cast of the telefilm 100 Days of Darkness that could have him play opposite Helen Hunt and under Kapur's direction for Sony.
Hunt is an Oscar winner for As Good As It Gets; Hounsou was nominated for In America last year and Kapur's Elizabeth was nominated for seven Oscars including best picture though the director was snubbed by the nomination committee.
The trade publication Variety broke the news on 100 Days of Darkness, adding that the film will focus on the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
It will be a second film for Hounsou that deals with the Rwanda genocide. He also has a part in Hotel Rwanda, already a hit at many international film festivals, and scheduled for a December 22 release in New York and Los Angeles to qualify it for Oscar nominations.
Don Cheadle stars in that flm based on a real life hotel manager who risks his life to save the lives of over a thousand refugees by sheltering them in his hotel.
The Kapur project is expected to be telecast after six months. His name is attached to several movies including The Long Walk, a screen bio of Nelson Mandela, and a film on Lord Buddha.
Hounsou played a mysterious character in Four Feathers whose presence in critical situations in the film makes a big difference in the lives of many of its characters.
"I would love to work with him again and again," Kapur had said on the eve of the film's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival two years ago. "He has tremendous inner strength, and we have seen only a small portion of it."
But Hounsou's strongly etched performance went mostly unnoticed when the $70 million film fumbled badly from its opening day and ended up with just about $35 million worldwide. Its video and DVD sales weren't much of a consolation, either.
On the other hand, Kapur's previous film Elizabeth was made on a modest budget of $35 million. It grossed over $100 million across the globe. Apart from major Oscar nominations, the movie also received many BAFTA nominations in Britain including one for Kapur.
