Uwe Boll is doing Darfur -- and has signed Kristanna Loken and Billy Zane to star in Janjaweed, a thriller set in the famously bloody region of the Sudan.

The project is set to begin shooting next month in South Africa, and will again pair Boll with frequent collaborator Shawn Williamson of Vancouver's Brightlight Pictures. Boll and Williamson (In the Name of the King, Postal) will produce the picture, a Brightlight/Event Films coproduction, along with Dan Clarke and Chris Roland. Boll will direct.

Loken and Zane, who both appeared in Boll's BloodRayne in 2005, will play American reporters caught amid the region's recent bloodshed. The project appears to be something of a departure for the German-born Boll, best known for low-budget video-game adaptations that tend to enrage both fans and critics.

"Making this film is very important to me on a personal level," Boll said in a statement. "But what's most important is for people to see the on-going genocide that's slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Sudanese. My hope is that this movie will open eyes to what is going on in our world."