|PIC1|As thousands prepare to celebrate the 200th anniversary of slave abolition across the British Empire, the Amazing Grace film is preparing to launch in the UK and Ireland in more than 200 screens on Friday 23 March.

In the US, Amazing Grace, which launched in February, has already grossed more than $8.2m at the box office, with more cinemas requesting to show the new film.

Charting William Wilberforce's political fight to end the British slave trade, Amazing Grace has remained in the Top 12 US films for a second week, despite a limited release in only 790 venues.

"About 100 new theatres have now asked to show the film and we hope to be able to meet that demand," said a spokesperson for Bristol Bay Productions, makers of the film. "There have been truly exceptional attendances in cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Washington DC."

"The campaign to end the British slave trade happened more than 200 years ago but Wilberforce is still a revered figure, internationally," explained May-Lynn Chang of Bristol Bay Productions. "We have seen similar enthusiasm from private screenings in the UK and Wilberforce is much better known on this side of the Atlantic. We would be enormously encouraged to see whole churches come out in force on the first few days of release, as they have in the US."

William Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons as MP for Hull when only 21 and dedicated his life to the reformation of manners in order to build a just and fair society.

He advocated prison reform, better hospital care, improving conditions for the poor and other areas of social reform, but his passion was to abolish slavery in all its forms. In 1807 the Commons voted to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire, but it took until 1833 for total abolition to be achieved.

Three days after this latter event, in July 1833, Wilberforce died. The hymn 'Amazing Grace' from which the movie derives its title, stands as the personal testimony of John Newton, a former slave trader who had a dramatic conversion to Christianity. Wilberforce and Newton met on several occasions and Wilberforce used the words of Newton's hymn to prick the conscience of influential members of the Commons and the Lords to support the Anti-Slavery Bill. John Newton died the same year as the bill passed into law in 1807.

Numerous events are continuing across the UK to celebrate the 200th year since the abolition of the slave trade across the British Empire. Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague and Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, have invited fellow MPs to a special parliamentary screening of the film.

Hague has written a new biography - William Wilberforce: The
Life of the Great Anti-slave Trade Campaigner - due out in the summer.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, also previously delivered an unconditional apology for the Church's role in the slave trade. He will lead a major Service of Reconciliation in Westminster Abbey on March 27.

In addition, hundreds of churches across the UK will sing the hymn 'Amazing Grace' on Amazing Grace Sunday, which has been set for 25 March 2007. For more information please visit: www.amazinggracesunday.com.