U.S. actor Edward Norton file photo(Photo: Shenzhen Daily)

U.S. actor Edward Norton and his Class 5 Films are producing a documentary about Democrat Barack Obama's historic bid for the White House, according to reports Wednesday in Hollywood.

The feature film planned for release in 2009 will focus on the political campaign of the Illinois senator, who is locked in a bitter fight with former first lady Hillary Clinton to be their party’s nominee for president, industry daily Variety reported on its Web site.

The as-yet-unnamed documentary's co-directors Amy Rice and Alicia Sam have had their cameras rolling since an Obama trip to Africa in 2006, according to the report. He launched his presidential campaign shortly thereafter.

It was Obama's inspiring speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004 that motivated Norton to do the film.

“We were all so struck by Barack’s speech and talked about how exciting it was to see someone from our generation, not our parents, make his presence felt in such an inspiring way,” Norton told Variety.

Class 5 was reportedly working with Ari Emanuel, a partner in the Hollywood production company Endeavor, to conclude a distribution deal for the film.

Emanuel, who worked on sales of Sacha Baron Cohen’s film "Borat" and the Michael Moore documentaries "Sicko" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," is the brother of Illinois Democratic Representative Rahm Emanuel and an outspoken supporter of Obama.

(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies March 14, 2008)