Hollywood actors
The Bang Bang Club stars Hollywood actors Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman and Taylor Kitsch. Phillippe plays Marinovich, Akerman plays a photo editor, and Kitsch plays Carter. Silva is played by South African actor Neels van Jaarsveld and Oosterbroek is played by South African-born actor, Frank Rauthenbach.

The movie is based on the book of the same name, written by Marinovich and Silva, the two surviving photojournalists of the Bang Bang Club.

Marinovich describes a scene in the first chapter of the book: “Earlier that morning we had been working the back streets and alleys of Thokoza township’s devastated no-man’s-land that we – Ken Oosterbroek, Kevin Carter, Joao and I – had become so familiar with over the years of chasing confrontations between police, soldiers, modern-day Zulu warriors and Kalashnikov-toting youngsters as apartheid came to its bloody end.”

Marinovich describes how he got shot in the chest, but also how Oosterbroek was fatally shot in the same township confrontation. “The boys were no longer untouchable, and, before the bloodstains faded from the concrete beside the wall, another of us would be dead.”

Silver identifies with the story. He said in a recent interview; “I identify with people who journey to unusual destinations and who return with unusual stories. That’s their job and it’s a service I provide as well.”

Silver has been working on the script for the six to seven years, and has written 18 drafts of the script. The movie is to be a feature film not a documentary.

From Joburg