BILL RUBENSTEIN, (co-screenwriter, co-producer), works in two fields: words and pictures. "When I decided to really make a go of it as a screenwriter, I knew that -- for a while at least -- I had to find alternate means of support. So I turned to my camera." He has work extensively as a photographer in the music business, travelling with U2 on both the Joshua Tree ('87) and Zoo TV ('92) tours.
Rubenstein, a Harvard graduate who has already explored in depth more than twenty-three countries around the world, wrote an early draft of "BEYOND RANGOON" in 1986, shortly after his first visit to that country. "The outline of the story was the same, but played against the tension of life in a police state -- the large scale violent clashes of '88 having not yet taken place."
Rubenstein -- who divides his time between California and Europe -- is currently at work on another adventure story with a political background, this one set in Burma's neighbor to the north, Tibet.
Despite the nature of his current projects, Rubenstein denies being a political writer. "In an era where every image is trying to sell you something, just trying to make a movie with a coherent story has become a political act."
Rubenstein wrote another version of the story, with co-writer Alex Lasker, in 1991, moving the dramatic elements into the context of the 1988 political demonstrations and massacres, and then finally worked with director John Boorman on another draft in 1993.
