The life of Bolivia's President, Evo Morales - the first indigenous person to rise to the country's highest office - is to be made into a feature film. This report from Emilio San Pedro

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Its Bolivian producer, Wilson Asturizaga, plans to shoot the project on a very modest fifty thousand dollar budget, well below the tens, or even hundreds of millions, spent on a typical Hollywood blockbuster in the United States.

More interesting still is the fact that the producers say they're going to use a television reality showto cast the three actors who will play Evo Morales in the different stages of his life. And yes, the TV viewers themselves will be able to choose who gets the coveted roles in the film. Furthermore, the main character won't be named Juan Evo Morales Ayma, President Morales's full name, but rather 'Juan Publo', or John Public, in a tribute to the fact that Evo Morales is just like everybody else and not a member of Bolivia's wealthy elite.

The producers hope to cast the film in May and to have it ready for release by October of this year, in time for the third anniversary of the street protests in 2003 in which sixty people died. It was those protests which eventually forced the resignation of then president Gonzales Sanches de Lozada and paved the way for Evo Morales's final ascent to the top.

Emilio San Pedro, BBC

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titled
called or named

to shoot the project
to record the film, to make the film

a very modest fifty thousand dollar budget
a very small amount of money available to make the film (unlike Hollywood movies that have lots of money, that have very large budgets)

reality show
a television programme with no actors (no one in the programme earns money as an actor)

to cast the three actors
to find the three people needed to pretend to be (to act as) Evo Morales

coveted roles
the acting jobs in the film that most people want (in this case, the role of Evo Morales)

main character
the person that the film is all about

wealthy elite
a small group of people who have lots of money

ready for release
ready to be shown in cinemas, ready for people to see the film

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