Hollywood star Wesley Snipes, wanted in the United States after being
indicted this week for dodging millions of dollars in taxes, is filming
a new movie in Namibia, an official said on Friday.
While a
newspaper report claimed the movie's producers were trying to delay his
extradition until shooting had been completed, the national film board
confirmed Snipes was on location in the south-west African country.
The 44-year-old star, who is best known for the Blade trilogy of vampire movies, is understood to be playing the lead role in Andrew Goth's film Gallowwalker, being shot near the coastal town of Swakopmund.
"All
I know is that he arrived end of August and the rest I know only from
newspaper reports," Edwin Kanguatjivi, chief executive officer of the
Namibia Film Commission, said.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors
in Tampa, Florida, issued an eight-count indictment accusing Snipes and
two others of conspiracy to defraud the US Internal Revenue Service and
submitting fake claims.
Snipes, who has also appeared in films such as Jungle Fever and White Men Can't Jump, faces six separate counts of failing to file income-tax returns.
The
conspiracy and false-claim charges carry a maximum sentence of five
years' imprisonment each, while Snipes could receive up to a 12-month
jail term for each count of failing to file tax returns, prosecutors
said. A warrant for Snipes's arrest has been issued.
Namibia's Afrikaans-language Republikein daily, meanwhile, reported that the film company producing Gallowwalker had hired a lawyer who had contacted public prosecutor Paul Perez in Florida.
"They
want to negotiate to allow Snipes to remain in Namibia until December
to complete the film," the daily reported. But an official of the local
law firm refused comment when contacted by Agence France-Presse,
saying: "We cannot discuss this matter with the media."
Snipes
created controversy in neighbouring South Africa in May last year when
he was found to be travelling with a fake passport.
South
Africa's Home Affairs Department later said the actor had "explained
that he had applied for South African documents for himself and his
family through his American attorneys" but the passport was found to be
a fake.
"Consequently, the fraudulent South African identity document and passport were confiscated," the ministry said.
A martial arts fanatic, Snipes is famous for inserting quotations from Sun Tzu's The Art of War into his film roles.
Later
this year, the Bronx-bred Snipes is due to start work in South Africa
on a historical epic based on the life of Francois Dominique Toussaint
L'Ouverture, who led a slave rebellion in 18th-century Haiti and formed
the world's first black republic.
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Wesley Snipes tracked down in NamibiaSaturday, 21 June 2008 Hollywood star Wesley Snipes, wanted in the United States after being
indicted this week for dodging millions of dollars in taxes, is filming
a...
Last update: 21-06-2008 12:55
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