ACTRESS and filmmaker Angelina Jolie has been hired to direct “Africa,” a feature film about paleoanthropologist and conservationist Richard Leakey and his campaign against ivory poachers that threaten Africa’s elephants.

    The film, Jolie’s fourth directorial effort, is from Skydance Productions, the company behind recent “Terminator” and “Mission: Impossible” films. The screenplay is from Eric Roth, who won an Oscar for “Forrest Gump.”

    “I’ve felt a deep connection to Africa and its culture for much of my life,” said Jolie in a statement.

    Leakey, she said, emerged from the violent conflict with elephant poachers “with a deeper understanding of man’s footprint and a profound sense of responsibility for the world around him.”

    Jolie will be joined by cinematographer Roger Deakins, who also worked on her next release “Unbroken,” a Universal Pictures biopic of Louis Zamperini, the Olympic runner turned war hero that opens in December.

    (SD-Agencies)