A Hollywood race to bring the dramatic rescue of four children after a plane crash deep in the Colombian jungle to the screen is causing bitter fallout between the country's president and the Indigenous group to which the children belong.
The discovery of the four children, from ages 1 to 13, 40 days after a crash that killed all the adults they were traveling with was a worldwide sensation.
But now the Huitoto Indigenous group, of which the children are members, has been left furious — by Colombia's President Gustavo Petro giving his blessing to a Hollywood documentary about the miraculous story of survival.
More than 13 Hollywood production companies have been trying to negotiate with the families of the children to tell their story, according to reports, while Netflix and National Geographic are said to have crews on the ground to produce content.
The children's grandparents were offered "a substantial contract from a U.S. company, but they rejected it when they saw that it included a clause that granted the company rights in perpetuity," according to a report in Spain's El Pais this week.
It said that lawyers representing the Indigenous group have demanded that producers make offers that will benefit the entire community of Araracuara, where the children are from.
Colombia's President Gustavo Petro (left) said he had agreed that Simon Chinn (second from left) would work with Colombian TV, led by its director Hollman Morris (right), to tell the story of the rescue. The three were photographed with British TV journalist Guillermo Galdos (second from right).@petrogustavo/Twitter But last week Petro posted a photo to Twitter at a climate summit in Paris with British documentary filmmaker Simon Chinn, a two-time Oscar winner, who is best known for 2008's "Man on Wire" about Philippe Petit, who walked a tightrope between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
Petro, who has used the rescue to bolster his own political position, said Colombian TV will partner with Chinn's Lightbox company to tell the story of "Operation Hope," the name of the 140-person rescue mission that saved them
The story is astonishing: Lesly Mukutuy, 13, helped keep her siblings Soleiny Mucutuy, 9, Tien, 4, and Cristin, 1, alive for 40 days in the hostile jungle after their mother and the two other adults on the plane died.
The wreck of the Cessna that went down in the Colombian jungle on May 1, leaving the four child survivors stranded in the Amazon rainforest for more than a month.AP "Muchas gracias, senor Presidente," Chinn tweeted in reply. "It's our great honor … to make the documentary about this inspirational Colombian story."
Also in the photo, which was taken while the Colombian leader was a delegate at a climate summit in Paris, was the director of television for Colombian state broadcaster RTVC, Hollman Morris and Guillermo Galdos, a South American correspondent for Britain's Channel 4.
The Hollywood deal prompted anger from Indigenous groups, who said they had initially been ignored during the rescue effort.
Many of the members of the rescue operation that hacked through thick jungle searching for the four siblings after a May 1 plane crash that left their mother and two others dead were Indigenous scouts in southern Colombia.
"We express our rejection of the announcement of this documentary production, since the decision was taken unilaterally by the national government, unaware that the search work was carried out by the teams of indigenous peoples from the area and relatives in the beginning, and only later by the military forces," the National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon said in a public statement.
Lightbox refused to comment.
Magdalena Mucutuy Valencia, the four children's mother, died in the plane crash. Her parents have been inundated with offers from Hollywood about their grandchildren's survivial.OPIAC The frenzy of interest in the children has already seen one documentary broadcast: TMZ Investigates is airing "Miracle Children of the Amazon" on Fox stations and on Hulu.
El Pais reports that Netflix and National Geographic have production teams on the ground in the Amazon.
OPIAC attacked the deals and requested that productions about the children's rescue should not go forward until the Indigenous community, in conjunction with the children's family, could make a decision about whom to work with.
Julio Cesar Lopez Jamioy is the general coordinator of the Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Colombian Amazon. The organization criticized the country's president for forging ahead with a documentary film about the rescue of the Indigenous children without consulting members of the tribe.JulioCLopezJamioy/Facebook The children, who are recovering at a military hospital in Bogota, are in the custody of Family Welfare, the government's child protection agency, after reports emerged that their father, Manuel Ranoque, had allegedly abused them and his wife.
Petro has attempted to defuse tensions with Indigenous leaders in the wake of the rescue. On Monday, he handed out 86 medals to the rescuers, praising their work alongside that of Colombia's military.
"The military with its satellites, and the Indigenous people with their potions — including ayahuasca — and invoking the spirits of the jungle, together, found life," Petro said during the ceremony in front of the presidential palace in Bogota.
Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two younger siblings and stepfather to the older two, has been accused of domestic violence and has been threatened with losing custody of the children.AFP via Getty Images For his part, Petro acknowledged as much last week. "We have to talk with the family, with the Indigenous communities (and) open the archive of images," he told journalists after his announcement that Colombian TV would work with Chinn and his Lightbox production company.
While many Colombians praised the president for forging the deal with Chinn, others were not so excited about the prospect of Hollywood's involvement in the project.
"'Operation Hope'? Maybe it should be renamed 'Operation Opportunist,'" posted one Twitter user after Petro's announcement last week.
With Post wires
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