Hollywood Producers Seek USD 30 M for Film on Bulgarian Nurses' Libya HIV Trial

Society » CULTURE | March 14, 2011, Monday // 18:16
Bulgaria: Hollywood Producers Seek USD 30 M for Film on Bulgarian Nurses' Libya HIV Trial Producers Richard Harding (left) and Sam Feuer (middle) pictured during their meeting with Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov (right). Photo by Sam Feuer

Hollywood producers Richard Harding and Sam Feuer are trying to raise USD 25 M-USD 30 M for their feature film on Bulgarian medics and Libya's HIV trial, they told Novinite.com (Sofia News Angecy).

In their exclusive interview for Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency), Harding and Feuer declared that the dramatic story of the 6 Bulgarian medics jailed in Libya in 1999-2007 for allegedly infecting deliberately 400 children with HIV is "compelling" and worthy of a Hollywood script.

"We are looking at a USD 25 M-USD 30 M budget. It is a very moderate number, and we are hoping that we can raise the bulk of that money here in Europe," Harding told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

"We want to make a movie that the budget is not too big because we want to show that a movie can make money, especially about Bulgarian nurses, and in the same time we want it to be a quality movie so that's the number we are looking at," Feuer explained in turn.

They have explained they would like to attract both US and European funding as well as both public and private investors, and have called upon those interested in their project not to hesitate to invest in it. The US producers are convinced that their movie has the potential to become a Hollywood-style blockbuster.

Harding and Feuer are from Sixth Sense Productions, based in Beverly Hills, CA. They were in Sofia for the showing of their latest production, "The First Grader", at the Sofia Film Fest.

They intend to start shooting their movie telling the story of the Bulgarian medics, tortured by the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi in order to confess, in 2012. The working title of the film is "The Benghazi Six."

"It is a human story, it is not a Bulgarian story. It happened to Bulgarians but it could have happened to anybody in that situation. It's thrilling, exciting story that exposes a tragedy," Feuer summarized how they viewed their project.

"It is a very compelling story. It is a story of suppression, it is a story of a dictator taking advantage of people that are innocent. When you tell these types of stories, you hope that positive things will come out of them, that they will help avoid these types of things in the future. It is important for the world to know what happened to these nurses, and to see the injustice. It's a universal film about injustice," - this is how Harding described their project on the Bulgarian medics' jailing in Libya.

The American producers first got the idea to make a movie about the fate of the six Bulgarian medics in Libya in 2005 while the trial against they was going on. On their past and current visit to Bulgaria, they have been meeting with the Bulgarian nurses and doctor themselves, and with Bulgarian politicians and diplomats involved in the efforts to save the medics from the hands of the Gaddafi dictatorship.

The travesty trial against the Bulgarian medics sponsored by Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was triggered by their arrest back in 1999. They spent 8 painful yars in prison and were sentenced to death twice. In July 2007, the involvement of the French Sarkozy presidential couple and the EU in the final stages of the talks, which has been deemed crucial by Bulgaria and the medics, led to their transfer to Bulgaria and release release.

Libya's former Justice Minister, who recently joined the anti-Gaddafi forces in the country, stated that not the Bulgarian medics, but the regime of leader Muammar Gaddafi was responsible for infecting more than 400 children with HIV. A Libyan official, who bought infected blood at a low price and pocketed the balance, is behind the HIV outbreak in Benghazi, according to fresh diplomatic cables, revealed by WikiLeaks.

Full text of Novinite.com's interview with US producers Richard Harding and Sam Feuer on their film for the Bulgarian nurses jailed in Libya READ HERE

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Tags: HIV, Libya HIV trial, Cate Blanchet, Geoffrey Rush, Angelina Jolie, Muammar Gaddafi, Bulgarian medics, Sixth Sense Productions, Sam Feuer, Richard Harding, Hollywood, movie, the benghazi 6, Libya

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