Warner Bros. To Delay 'Blood Diamond'

[Tuesday, September 5th, 2006]
Warner Bros. has said they won't release Ed Zwick's Leonardo DiCaprio starrer Blood Diamond until Dec. 15, according to Variety

The diamond industry is already going on the offensive. On Wednesday, the industry will take out full-page ads in major U.S. and international newspapers announcing a new Web site detailing what's been done to put a stop to "conflict" diamonds, i.e., smuggled gems used to support brutal dictators and human atrocities in various African countries.

DiCaprio plays a mercenary gun smuggler who takes up with a diamond buyer during the violent 1999 civil war in Sierra Leone.

World Diamond Council chair Eli Izhakoff said Zwick's movie may indeed portray the way things were in Sierra Leone and other countries, but the industry has worked hard since then to eradicate the problem, including supporting the Kimberly Process, whereby rough diamonds are tracked and certified.

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