Ryan Gosling is one crafty fella. Lightweight (Remember the Titans!), heavyweight (The Believer!) and weird choices in between (The Notebook), the dude has earned himself a rep as a true thesp, as evidenced by his recent Academy Award and SAG nomination for Half Nelson. In the mean time, while toying with the idea of whether to commit to the way of the beard, he’s also been moonlighting as screenwriter and salesman for a film preliminarily titled after its subject, The Lord’s Resistance Army.
The film seeks to explore the craziness that is the 200,000 strong tragedy of AK-wielding children in Africa- specifically, The Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. Billed as paramilitary terrorists, the LRA is a "resistance" group propped up as an insurgency against the 1986 overthrow of the Ugandan government, which has since seemingly become more intent on power and battle, meandering into Sudan and murdering, mutilating and raping the people who once mildly supported their cause. The LRA is a mass offender in using children soldiers in its operations and is being pursued by the International Criminal Court for its crimes.
Variety is reporting (for what that’s worth these days) Gosling is working on the passion project with an intention to direct because acting, my friends, is the new PA. Gosling has all but secured financing for his self-penned screenplay, which sources in the know say will be his top priority, despite a surge in popularity.
In the mean time, however, the guy is prudent and plans to keep on eating, as he has four films lined up over the next two years, including the Anthony Hopkins as murderer film Fracture, which is set for release in April.