Ralph Fiennes hadn’t read John Le Carre’s controversial thriller The Constant Gardener when he was approached about the film version. So he visited his favourite London bookstore and bought the book. “I had heard very good things about it,” he says now.
By the time he finished Le Carre’s savage indictment of the international pharmaceutical industry – particularly its use of poor, unsuspecting Africans as human guinea pigs for new drugs with dreadful side effects – he was incredulous.
“My first reaction was: Does this sort of thing go on? Apparently it has gone on. I don’t know whether it goes on any more.”
What Fiennes did know was that the novel touched a nerve with him – and so did Jeffrey Caines’s screen adaptation when he finally read it. Then he felt compelled to read more literature about “Big Pharma” and its hundred-billion-dollar profits.
“I consider myself pretty socially aware. I like to be informed. I read. I listen to the news. I like to be informed by depth articles, so I’m an avid reader of magazines like The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books and The London Review of Books. And I read the papers.”
His social conscience has led the 42-year-old actor to an involvement with the United Nations Children’s Fund, travelling on its behalf to Africa, where he has filmed public service featurettes that seek to alert the world to problems of child poverty on that continent. And making this movie has altered his conscience further – which is why he is involved in the new Constant Gardener charity trust set up by the film’s producer, Simon Channing Williams, to assist impoverished areas of Kenya, where much of the film was shot. Thanks to the work of the trust, there is now fresh water in one region as well as road improvements. “Also we’re building a secondary school there,” Fiennes says.
Channing Williams has been the driving passion behind the film, which opens next week. The British-born producer had read the novel in manuscript form in 2000 and immediately went after the film rights.
Related Travel Information
The pharmaceutical industry is about to get another pain in the neck. If the recent mega-million-dollar verdict against Merck and its Vioxx painkiller didn't do enough to further taint the reputation of Big Pharma, The Constant Gardener, a new morally conscious thriller for the left, should only confirm the public's distrust.
Based on John Le Carre's 2001 novel, the film is a slick exposé of callous pharmaceutical giants and corrupt governments. But for all its laudable intentions, The Constant Gardener is the latest picture from "liberal Hollywood" (see also The Interpreter) to advance its agenda from a first-world, white perspective --
Indaba, the South African Tourism's annual exhibition will take place at the International Convention Centre in Durban, South Africa, from May 7 - 10, 2005.
Billed to be the largest tourism event of its kind on the African continent, Indaba is ranked among the top three exhibitions on the global travel trade calendar alongside the World Travel Market in London, UK and Berlin's ITB.
The exhibition showcases a comprehensive range of products from different sectors of Southern Africa's travel and tourism industry. Products will range from airlines, car rental and destination management companies to game lodges.
An aggressive drive to promote this
British funnyman Steve Coogan has rubbished reports he's secretly dating troubled rocker Courtney Love.
The 41-year-old former Hole singer was spotted with Coogan in an Los Angeles hotel for two weeks last month where they openly flirted in front of other guests.
A source tells British newspaper The Sun: "Courtney was all over Steve. They were flirting in front of everyone."
Love, who received three-years probation in February for assault, has even penned the comic a love note, it reads, "It's so weird and wrong and good and sweet and evil being with you. You are beautiful my little baby - oh
British funnyman STEVE COOGAN has rubbished reports he's secretly dating troubled rocker COURTNEY LOVE.
The 41-year-old former HOLE singer was spotted with the AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS actor in an Los Angeles hotel for two weeks last month (JULY05) where they openly flirted in front of other guests.
A source tells British newspaper The Sun, "Courtney was all over Steve. They were flirting in front of everyone."
Love, who received three-years probation in February (05) for assault, has even penned the comic a love note, it reads, "It's so weird and wrong and good and sweet and evil being with you.
Mozambican Tourism Minister Fernando Sumbana said on Saturday that Mozambique's strategy to turn the country into one of the world's preferred tourism destinations will soon come to fruition.
He made this statement on welcoming a group of 250 South Africans, including business people and tourists who, among other objectives, are seeking business opportunities in Mozambique.
One of the priorities in the government's Five Year Plan (2005/09) is to adopt measures to establish local and regional partnerships, and to facilitate access to business opportunities in view of the World Cup 2010, to be held in the neighbouring South Africa.
"We are interested in