African-based thriller The Blood Diamond, has begun production in South Africa and Mozambique, Warner Bros. Pictures announced yesterday.

Directed by Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai), the film will star Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer, a South African mercenary , and Djimon Hounsou as Mende fisherman Soloman Vandy in the midst of the civil war of Sierra Leone in the 1990s. Together with American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), the men set off to find a rare pink diamond in the hope of transforming their lives.

The movie will film on location in Port Edward and Cape Town in South Africa, and in Maputo in Mozambique.