Here's a fast turnaround from real-life event to film: Samuel L. Jackson is set to star as Andrew Mwangura, the freelance journalist and hostage negotiator who recently played go-between when Somali pirates took several ships hostage.
Mwangura is a journalist and ex-marine engineer who runs the Seafarers' Assistance Programme, a nonprofit group that offers humanitarian aid to all seafarers. He was flown in to settle the dispute, earning the trust of both sides and brokering a deal to recover the crew and cargo for $3.4million (a high price apparently reached after the pirates discovered a cache of Russian tanks onboard the Ukranian ship they seized).
Jackson is working with producer Andras Hamori on the film: the pair previously worked together on The 51st State and are collaborating on JG Ballard adaptation Running Wild, about a massacre in a gated community, which is still in pre-production. Meanwhile Jackson's shooting Iron Man 2, but will hopefully find time on set to practice for this role. After all, The Negotiator showed that he can take care of the talks themselves, but he'll need to learn to speak Pirate. Altogether now: Arrrrrrrrr!