Hollywood Film Draws Inspiration From Serbs on Run

This autumn in Belgrade will see the start of shooting of "An Ordinary Man", written and directed by Brad Silberling and possibly inspired to a degree by the true life stories of one or more Serbian war criminals.

Silberling, best known for his films City of Angels, Lemony Snicket, as well as television shows NYPD Blue and Felicity, is getting ready to shoot the film with a plot revolving around a war criminal fleeing justice and communicating with the outside world through his former housemaid.

The fact that the main character in the film lives under an assumed identity and begins an affair with a woman who helps him in hiding has led some in the Serbian media to speculate about a possibly link to the former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.

While on the run Hadzic started a new life with another woman and even fathered a child with her. 

Silberling, however, has dampened the speculation by insisting that the main character in his film is a purely fictional figure.

The main role is entrusted to Irish actor Brendan Gleeson who has starred played in blockbusters including "Troy" (in the role of King Menelaus), "Cold Mountain", "Harry Potter", "Gangs of New York" and "Braveheart".

The movie, which is in pre-production, is due to come to theatres in 2014.

Serbian police arrested arrested Hadzic in the Fruska Gora hills of northern Serbia last summer.

Hadzic will face 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged involvement in the forced removal and murder of thousands of civilians from Croatia between 1991 and 1993.