Al Pacino joins the cast of the movie based on my book

When the producers of "Where the White Man Runs Away",* the upcoming movie based on my book, told me that Al Pacino would be playing a part in it, I didn't quite take them seriously. Next I hear, his scenes have been filmed. Joining Al Pacino are Evan Peters (playing me, which I still can't get used to), Melanie Griffith, and Barkhad Abdi (of "Captain Phillips" fame).

The film is being directed by writer-director Bryan Buckley, who wrote and produced a short film about Somali piracy, "Asad", that was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012.

"Where the White Man Runs Away" is being produced by Buckley’s Hungry Man Productions, BCDF Pictures ("The Outskirts") and Kalahari Film & Media ("District 9"). Most of the film is being shot on the Cape in South Africa, and I really hope to find time to make it down there from Nairobi.

* The title requires some explanation; in the first chapter of my book, I quote a fellow plane passenger's translation of our destination, the central Somali city of Galkayo, as "where the white man runs away". I would later learn that this was a somewhat liberal translation. A more accurate rendering might read "place of a battle with infidels" ("gaal" meaning "non-believer" in Somali), though a more widely accepted etymology connects Galkayo to the Oromo (Galla) people who perhaps once inhabited the area.