Environmental issues
important to Leo!!
9/12/99
Last autumn, without notice,
Hollywood movie star Leonardo DiCaprio answered DFGF's appeal for the
Congolese Parks Authority and donated the full target of the
emergency appeal.
"The environment, and
environmental issues, are the first and foremost charitable concerns
I have focused on," Leonardo said recently, "and I consider myself an
environmentalist." Such instinctive support makes powerful comment
on the importance of mountain gorilla conservation.
Dian Fossey said, "Human beings
must decide now whether or not the mountain gorilla will become a
species discovered and extinct within the same century." In the final
months of the 20th century, when the threats to their survival are
manifold, her words are more compelling than ever. It is a decisive
moment for mountain gorillas.
Leonardo DiCaprio is just one
of a growing number of famous, wealthy and powerful individuals who
have responded to the cause. In the past 6 months the Fund has raised
175,000 pounds from just 25 individual donors. Invariably, their
increasing support has been matched by the growing success of
community-based conservation in central Africa.
Dian Fossey maintained, "The
gorillas' destiny lies in the hands of those who share their communal
inheritance." Now, with a major commitment to long-term finance near
at hand, finally, after 30 years of conservation in the Virungas,
genuine African ownership of the issues has begun to emerge. A
growing force of Congolese, Rwandese and Ugandan conservationists -
skilled, committed and funded - have begun to take control of gorilla
conservation.
New Information on Kate
and "Quills"!!
9/12/99
Award-winning director Philip
Kaufman has begun principal photography in London on "Quills," which
stars Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Caine,
it was announced today by Fox Searchlight President Lindsay Law.
Witty, seductive and deliciously sinister, "Quills" is a compelling
portrait of the passionately obsessed and the dynamics of morality,
consequence and freedom of expression. Kaufman directs from a script
by Doug Wright.
Kaufman, whose diverse films
include "The Right Stuff," "Rising Sun," "The Unbearable Lightness of
Being," for which his screenplay was nominated for an Academy
Award®, and "Henry and June," has enjoyed a considerable
reputation as both writer and director of style and imagination
having written "The Outlaw Josey Wales."
Oscar®-winner Geoffrey Rush
("Shine," "Elizabeth," "Shakespeare in Love") is cast as the Marquis
de Sade, whose literature changed forever the language of sexuality
and attracted controversy and admiration in equal measure. In the
years after the French Revolution, de Sade's literature continued to
threaten the moral conservatism of Napoleon's France.
Oscar®-nominee Kate Winslet
("Titanic," "Sense and Sensibility," "Hideous Kinky") plays
Madeleine, the innocent and feisty young laundress who unwittingly
temps Charenton asylum's most famous resident and the priest who runs
it.
Joaquin Phoenix ("Gladiator,"
"Inventing the Abbotts," "To Die For") plays the Abbe Coulmier who
believes toleration and a love of God can cure any man. But, he
reckons without the depths of depravity he encounters, with tragic
and terrifying consequences for all concerned.
Oscar®-winner Michael Caine
("Hannah and Her Sisters," "Little Voice") plays the ambitious doctor
Royer-Collard, determined to use his new appointment at the asylum as
a political stepping stone.
Behind-the-scenes, director
Kaufman and his producing partners Peter Kaufman, Julia Chasman, Nick
Wechsler and co-producer Mark Huffam, have assembled a kaleidoscope
of technical talent which includes Oscar®-winning production
designer Martin Childs ("Shakespeare in Love"), director of
photography Rogier Stoffers, costume designer Jacqueline West
("Rising Sun") and editor Peter Boyle ("Robin Hood Prince of
Thieves").
"Quills" will be released next
year.
Cool Note: Overall worldwide
sales of the Titanic video have reached 57 million (!!!) copies. A
new world record (as expected).
This page will be
updated once a week. Unless, there is no new news!!