Notable Nigerian director, Jeta Amata is making moves at the Cannes Film Festival.

As his latest effort, a film called Black Gold is being screened for industry and press at the festival – a film we’ve previously written about, starring an international cast of characters, both in front and behind the camera, and that takes place in countries on 2 continents, and centers on corruption in the murky waters of the volatile oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria – Amata has sealed a production deal for his next project which will tackle another kind of corruption – this time in the practices of multinational pharmaceutical companies in Africa.

The film will be titled Journeys Of One, and is being described as an “ambitious English-language drama,” which will be executive produced by London-based Donald Ranvaud (whose past producer credits include similar third-world-set drama/thrillers like City of God and The Constant Gardner, both critically acclaimed works). So, regardless of what you might personally think of those 2 films, Amata is in good company, yes?

The film will be based on real-life investigative reports on the subject matter – reports that don’t get much international recognition, according to Amata, who further states, “We like Hollywood coming to tell our story; but they miss some of the essence of the African point of view… If you go to the remote villages where they don’t have proper means of communication, you find people just dying unnecessarily… and though they don’t realize it, the real thing that killed them was some drug that they weren’t meant to take.

The report says that the producers are currently searching for a “name” African-American actor for one of the starring roles. Although, no word on who’s on their short list, and what exactly this role (or any of the other roles in the film) might be.

Color me definitely intrigued…