Al Pacino Joins Cast of Somali Drama 'Where the White Man Runs Away' (Exclusive)
Al Pacino has signed on to join the cast of writer-director Bryan Buckley’s Where the White Man Runs Away.
Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi and Melanie Griffith also are joining the drama, which marks Buckley’s follow-up to the 2015 Sundance hit The Bronze. Evan Peters (X-Men, Kick-Ass) already is onboard to star as real-life rookie journalist Jay Bahadur, who wrote the best-selling book The Pirates of Somalia.
Pacino will play the role of Seymour Tobin, a fictitious Vietnam War correspondent whose passion for telling the uncensored truth far exceeds the battlefield. Abdi, who nabbed a supporting Oscar nomination for playing a Somali pirate in Captain Phillips, won't be playing a bandit of the African high seas this time. Instead, he will portray the translator who helps Bahadur navigate Somalia. Griffith will play Bahadur's eccentric, loving mother.
The project has a Captain Phillips connection beyond Abdi’s casting. Bahadur famously interviewed one of the pirates who later hijacked the Maersk Alabama, which was the subject of the Tom Hanks-led film.
Pacino most recently starred in Barry Levinson’s The Humbling, the Dan Fogelman-directedDanny Collins and the David Gordon Green-helmed Manglehorn.
Production on Where the White Man Runs Away begins this month in New York and will move to Cape Town, South Africa, in March.
Al Pacino has signed on to join the cast of writer-director Bryan Buckley’s Where the White Man Runs Away.
Captain Phillips star Barkhad Abdi and Melanie Griffith also are joining the drama, which marks Buckley’s follow-up to the 2015 Sundance hit The Bronze. Evan Peters (X-Men, Kick-Ass) already is onboard to star as real-life rookie journalist Jay Bahadur, who wrote the best-selling book The Pirates of Somalia.
Pacino will play the role of Seymour Tobin, a fictitious Vietnam War correspondent whose passion for telling the uncensored truth far exceeds the battlefield. Abdi, who nabbed a supporting Oscar nomination for playing a Somali pirate in Captain Phillips, won't be playing a bandit of the African high seas this time. Instead, he will portray the translator who helps Bahadur navigate Somalia. Griffith will play Bahadur's eccentric, loving mother.
The project has a Captain Phillips connection beyond Abdi’s casting. Bahadur famously interviewed one of the pirates who later hijacked the Maersk Alabama, which was the subject of the Tom Hanks-led film.
Pacino most recently starred in Barry Levinson’s The Humbling, the Dan Fogelman-directedDanny Collins and the David Gordon Green-helmed Manglehorn.
Production on Where the White Man Runs Away begins this month in New York and will move to Cape Town, South Africa, in March.
