P lans are underway to produce a major, big-budget motion picture in Cambodia

starring Hollywood veteran, James Woods, with Briton Stanley Harper as director

and the involvement of Roland Joffe, who acquired fame with his Academy Award

winning film, "The Killing Fields."

Appropriate green lights for the film

"Dei Khmer, Srok Khmer" have been given by His Majesty King Sihanouk, Second

Prime Minister Hun Sen, as well as the Ministries of Interior, Culture and

Information, according to Ministry of Information spokesman Leng

Sochea.

One government official said that the film was budgeted at $40

million although this could not be confirmed by the Ministry of

Information.

Harper is the director of an earlier film on Cambodia called

"Situation Zero".

His upcoming film will deal with the return of a

refugee family from a border camp in l993 and "their reconciliation in their

homeland and how it affects two foreigners in Cambodia," according to a letter

granting permission for the project seen by the Post.

James Woods is

known for his roles in "Salvador" and "Tequila Sunrise" as well as a host of

other blockbusters, although several ardent film buffs interviewed by the Post

could not remember their names.

Crews and actors are expected to arrive

"in late August or early September" to start filming according to Sochea.