DALLAS ? There was an Oscar winner, yes, the Academy Award, on board the chartered Boeing 757 that flew Manny Pacquiao and his oversized entourage Monday.
He occupied seat 10D. His name is Leon Gast.
The American film director, producer, cinematographer and editor rolled into one is currently working on a documentary on the life and times of the 31-year-old Filipino boxing champion.
With a crew of six on hand, Gast is committed to put on the same type of work that won him an Oscar in 1996, the best in documentary, with his feature entitled ?When We Were Kings.?
And it?s all about the ?Rumble in the Jungle,? that iconic Oct. 30, 1974 heavyweight championship bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire (now the DR Congo).
?We filmed it in 1974 but got to release it only in 1996. We got sued by almost everybody because we didn?t have the permission of a lot of people. Then it won the Oscar,? he said.
The rest is history, so they say, but Gast is out to repeat history.
