Venezuela Fights 'American Cultural Hegemony' With Danny Glover Film

And you thought Michael Moore's recent trip to Cuba was strange. Put this in the weirdest-film-annoucement-in-a-while file. Venezuela's government-funded studio Villa del Cine plans to give actor Danny Glover, best known for his work in the Lethal Weapon franchise with Mel Gibson, $18 million to make a movie about Toussaint Louverture, who led an 18th century revolt in Haiti, the Guardian is reporting today. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez reportedly hopes that the historical epic, about a slave uprising, will help his effort to mobilize "world opinion against imperialism and western oppression." Glover, a civil rights activist and reportedly a supporter of Chavez's radical leftwing policies, said he wanted to educate the US about the story. "It's been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it's been wiped clean," he told the Guardian. This isn't Chavez's first foray into film. He had once said that Oliver Stone planned to make a movie about him. The Venezuelan congress plans use the proceeds from a recent bond sale with Argentina to finance the biopic. However, the article did state that Glover was still uncertain if the film would actually go ahead. "One of the major axioms in theatre is never talk about anything until the deal is signed," Glover said. "There's a lot of deliberation that goes on before something actually happens." It appeared that the congress timed the announcement to coincide with a media conference in Caracas hosted by the television network Telesur, a Venezuela-funded regional answer to CNN. Glover is on the board, the article said.

Venezuela giving Danny Glover $18m to direct film on epic slave revolt [Guardian]

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