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LOS ANGELES - It doesn't compare to a Las Vegas casino heist or swiping a priceless Faberge egg, but Daniel Ocean's gang have a new mission: raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Hollywood's most glamorous crooks return this month when "Ocean's 13," a second sequel to 2001's remake of the ratpack classic "Ocean's 11," makes its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
In an unusual move, the film's stars, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle, want to use the event to draw the world's attention to the conflict in western Sudan.
Producer Jerry Weintraub is also planning benefits for the film's US premieres in Las Vegas and Chicago next month, with the proceeds going to Not On Our Watch, a humanitarian group sponsored by the actors.
Not On Our Watch has been set up to campaign about the conflict in Darfur, which according to UN figures has left 200,000 people dead and two million people displaced since 2003.
Cheadle, who will reprise his role as explosives expert Basher Tarr in "Ocean's 13," is in his second year of campaigning for Darfur.
The 42-year-old US actor has also recently co-authored a new book "Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond."
Cheadle said in a recent interview that he had become an activist for Darfur after visiting the region in 2005, following his acclaimed role in "Hotel Rwanda" based on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
"We toured the camps, and I was able to get a first-hand accounting of what happened," Cheadle said.
"Once I had seen with my own eyes and understood and listened to these people's stories, it was very hard to just return to my comfortable life and not do anything when I had the opportunity to do a lot more."
Cheadle and Clooney both met former UN secretary general Kofi Annan late last year to lobby for Darfur.
Cheadle has admitted that getting media attention for the conflict in Darfur is an uphill battle.
"We need to press that these stories not be small paragraphs on page 17 but that they at least have as much time as Britney Spears not wearing underwear," he said recently. "I mean, where are our priorities?"
"Ocean's 13" sees most of the cast of the first two movies reunited, with Hollywood legend Al Pacino joining the latest installment of the light-hearted crime caper.
The movie, directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh, sees Clooney's pack of crooks joining forces with their nemesis from the first two films, Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), as they set out to bankrupt a Las Vegas casino run by Pacino's character on its opening night. - AFP/ra
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