Jean-Jacques Annaud risks more controversy with Kashmir

He's already been banned from China after his film Seven Years in Tibet upset the communist authorities. Pretty soon it's likely Jean-Jacques Annaud won't be too popular in certain parts of the subcontinent: the Oscar-winning French director's next project looks likely to be the terrorism thriller Kashmir, set in the disputed region on the border of India and Pakistan. In the story, which has been penned by DB Weiss, three ex-mercenaries head for the region after hearing that a terrorist leader with a $30m price on his head is going to be in town for a while. But it turns out that each of them has another reason for being in the area, and tensions mount as they near their objective. Variety reports that Annaud is in final negotiations to direct, and, as is his wont, has made up his mind to shoot as close to the area he is depicting on film as possible. However, given the politically tense nature of Kashmir, location scouts are also looking at sites in Argentina, Mexico and other parts of India. You know, just in case. Annaud's first feature film, Black and White in Color, was awarded the best foreign language Oscar in 1976, but he is perhaps best known for 1997's critical flop Seven Years in Tibet which managed to cause a certain amount of controversy. Two years after the film's release Annaud confirmed that, while most of the film was shot in Argentina, two crews had secretly shot footage in Tibet. The Chinese authorities banned Annaud and stars Brad Pitt and David Thewlis from ever entering the country due to positive depictions of the Dalai Lama in the film. Pitt's portrayal of the Austrian mountaineer and one-time SS Nazi Heinrich Harrer was also the subject of a certain amount of attention: he came third in a BBC poll of the all-time worst movie accents.