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German actor Erwin Geschonneck died Wednesday, aged 101. PHOTO :EPA

US actor Ed Norton and his Class 5 Films are producing a documentary about Democrat Barack Obama's historic bid for the White House, according to reports Wednesday in Hollywood.

The feature film planned for release next year will focus on the political campaign of the Illinois senator, who is locked in a tight race with former first lady and current Senator Hillary Clinton to be their party's nominee for president, industry daily Variety reported on its Web site.

Class 5 was reportedly working with Ari Emanuel, a partner in the Hollywood production company Endeavor, to conclude a distribution deal.

Emanuel, who worked on sales of Sacha Baron Cohen's film Borat and the Michael Moore documentaries Sicko and Fahrenheit 9/11, is an outspoken supporter of Obama.

Dennis Gansel's Die Welle (The Wave) explores the hypothetical question of whether another dictatorship could ever emerge in Germany and has come to the chilling conclusion that it could happen again.

"It's wrong to say 'No way - a Nazi dictatorship could never happen here,'" Gansel said in an interview.

Gansel's film has already electrified the German media even before its release. "It's already the most-talked about film of the year," wrote Bild newspaper. Bunte magazine said: "It shows how vulnerable people can be in authoritarian situations."

The film set in a Berlin suburb is about bored, ill-mannered teenagers jolted out of their apathy by a dynamic teacher.

The students accept a new regime of discipline and obedience - and ostracize any dissenters.

Harry Potter was the center of seven novels, but he'll star in eight films.

The final book in the wildly successful series will be made into two films, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

Producers were expected to announce yesterday that J.K. Rowling's last Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be split into two parts on the big screen. The first film is slated for release in November, 2010, the second in May, 2011.

Two of the leading lights of American comedy, producer Judd Apatow and actor Adam Sandler, have joined forces for a new film currently in development, industry daily Variety reported Monday.

Apatow, the man behind box office hits The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked-Up, will direct the movie, whose title and plot remain secret. Click star Sandler will take the lead role.

Danny Glover will be given a lifetime achievement award during a film festival in Norfolk, Virginia.

The second annual Old Dominion University/City of Norfolk (ONFilm) Festival will be held from March 29 through April 5.

The theme is Reel Politics and the festival will include free screenings of films examining subjects from Cold War politics to the politics of gender.

Old Dominion said that Glover, an advocate for social rights, will receive his award during a closing gala on April 5 at the Granby Theater.

The 60-year-old actor's film credits include the Lethal Weapon series and The Color Purple as well as Saw and Dreamgirls.

No one had to twist Robert Redford's arm to get him to narrate an IMAX film about a Grand Canyon river trip.

Redford, a lifelong environmentalist, previously navigated the Colorado River and has a boat on Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir on the Arizona-Utah border created by a dam. He worries about water conservation as a drought threatens the region - and, visibly, the Colorado.

"(The river is) endangered now on a number of fronts," Redford said by phone Monday from his office in Park City, Utah.

The issues affecting the river, a source of water for some 27 million people in seven states, are addressed in a viewer-friendly way in Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk 3D, which opens in the US today.

Erwin Geschonneck, a German actor who spent years in Nazi concentration camps for his communist sympathies and went on to star in scores of East German films, died Wednesday, the country's Academy of Arts said. He was 101.

Geschonneck's "engaging artistic and political efforts were recognized with the highest international acclaim for decades," the organization said in a statement. It said that the biography of Geschonneck, who died at his Berlin apartment, "is a window into a century of German history." Geschonneck, the son of a cobbler, was born in East Prussia on Dec. 27, 1906 and grew up in Berlin.
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