Daniel Radcliffe Takes The Journey

January 2, 2008 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News

Daniel Radcliffe Takes The Journey Daniel Radcliffe will star in The Journey, a movie about British photojournalist Dan Eldon.

Based on actual events, Radcliffe will play Dan Eldon, a 22-year-old who was among four journalists stoned to death by a mob in Mogadishu in July 1993. Eldon left behind a series of journals, thousands of pictures and a legacy that has won admirers around the world. Bronwen Hughes will direct the movie from a script by Jan Sardi.

Eldon was born in Hampstead, north London. When he was seven years old, the family moved to Kenya and he fell in love with Africa. After spells in America and travels worldwide, he followed a family friend to northern Kenya where she photographed refugees of the civil war in neighbouring Somalia. Horrified, Eldon also took photographs which were published in Kenya’s leading newspaper.

In 1992, he went to Somalia on assignment for Reuters. He witnessed American and UN troops launch ’Operation Restore Hope’, first with a sense of relief, then growing frustration, and his pictures helped draw international attention to the developing crisis. On 12 July 1993, he was due to leave Mogadishu – his bags were packed and his replacement had arrived.

But then UN forces bombed a house where they believed the warlord General Farah Aideed was present. Instead, 74 innocent men, women and children were killed and more than 100 injured. Survivors raced to the journalists’ hotel and asked them to take pictures. Travelling in convoy, under the protection of Somalis, Eldon and a group of colleagues went to the bombed compound.

As they began to take photographs, the crowd erupted in anger at what had happened and attacked the journalists. Eldon and his colleagues – Hansi Krauss, Anthony Macharia of Reuters and Hos Maina of the Associated Press – were surrounded, stoned and beaten to death.

Radcliffe is best known for playing the title role in the Harry Potter movies. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the next-to-last entry in the series, is due for release later this year.