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Freeman to star in Clarke’s space thriller?
By Marisa de Silva
Oscar winning star Morgan Freeman and movie producer Lori McCreary were in Colombo last weekend, to meet with Sir Arthur C. Clarke regarding producing an adaptation of his award-winning novel - ‘Rendezvous with Rama’.
Freeman, who sounded very much like he does in the movies, said that he was in the country on holiday and that he had been here for two days. “He was very impressive – a fine gentleman,” said Mrs. Valerie Ekanayake, a close friend of Sir Clarke. When he was approached by little kids, he took the time to have fun chats with them; “He really goes out of his way to reach out to people,” she said.

Having been very keen on producing this movie for a while now, Freeman had wanted to meet Sir Clarke in person for many years and so had decided to visit him on his return from Bulgaria after filming there, said Mrs. Ekanayake. No exact date has yet been set for shooting the movie as it is still in the research stage, she added. Incidentally, famous astrologer Michael Snowden too was in town last week so, he too joined in on the discussions.

The basic plot of Sir Clarke’s novel takes us two centuries into the future, where a mysterious, immense alien spaceship dubbed 'Rama' enters the solar system. Earth sends out an exploration team to board the approaching craft, which appears to be a giant cylindrical tube. Once inside the vessel, the explorers find themselves in a self-contained world of alien wonders and unknown purpose - seemingly abandoned…

Actor Morgan Freeman told SCI FI Wire in 2003 that he was quite intent on producing this movie and was just awaiting a final script. "The bugaboo there is the script," Freeman said in an interview while promoting his (then) upcoming film Dreamcatcher. "A picture like this, that is written by Arthur C. Clarke, the problem is trying to get someone to understand what it is."

Freeman said that the script has gone through several drafts in an effort to balance the commercial aspects with the science of Clarke's original story. "These things, they always want to make it into an action film," Freeman had told SCI FI WIRE. "So you've got to cowboy it up a little bit. You can't do it with this. And we've been having trouble getting someone to see the science aspect of this, the exploratory aspects of it, rather than the blood and guts and stuff."

In addition to co-producing and directing this movie, Freeman is also tipped to star in it as well. So Freeman fans, watch out for ‘Rendezvous with Rama’.
Freeman and McCreary stayed at the Hilton Colombo during their recent visit.

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