John Abraham - Rachel Weisz in Deepa Mehta film

Deepa Mehta was all praise about John Abraham and his performance in ‘Water’, but we never really thought that she would be the one who would give him an international platform. Right now John is in her two ambitious international projects. One of which is with Amitab Bachchan and another film ‘Luna’ starring Rachel Weisz.

Rachel Weisz is popular Hollywood actress with films like The Mummy, Constantine and Constant Gardner to her credit. She won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Constant Gardner. The film is scripted by two time Oscar winner David Ward.

John’s film ‘Exclusion’ with Amitab will be shot later this year. Deepa Mehta announced ‘Luna’ in Cannes. Although Rachel Weisz would be the main protagonist, playing the title character Luna, John will also have a full-fledged role, says Deepa Mehta.

‘Luna’ is based on a real life story of an American activist and environmentalist Julia Butterfly Hill, who protested against the felling of trees in the Red Wood forests in the US by climbing a 180-foot Redwood tree. The lady climbed down only 738 days later- from 1997 to 1999. The tree was named Luna. The protest had a huge impact and a resolution was formed in 1999 to protect all trees in the 3-acre buffer zone of the Redwood forest.

John is also playing an environmentalist in ‘Luna’, but his cultural origin is not specified He is neither an Indian, nor an American in the film. This makes him Bollywood’s first actor to do a Hollywood film without playing an NRI or some snake charmer.

John was not only her choice says Deepa, “The true-life inspiration for the film, Julia Hill, just loved John. Her approval was very important. She thought he looked like Antonio Banderas!”