So it came as a surprise to many when the man responsible for creating The Block , Celebrity Overhaul and Australian Survivor quit his job as a senior producer at Channel Nine to make peace documentaries.

In 2006 the Australian IT millionaire and philanthropist Steve Killelea asked Wise to set up a new independent film company, One Tree Films, with the goal of "making films with social meaning".

Wise took up the challenge with relish, and recently completed work on One Tree's first film, Soldiers Of Peace .

"I went to lunch with Steve one day and he said. 'How would you feel about leaving Channel Nine and running an independent documentary film company?"' Wise said.

"I was dumbfounded - I couldn't believe what he was offering me. I was getting a bit bored with reality TV and this was an opportunity to do something different."

Soldiers Of Peace tells a series of stories about peace activism around the world, with Wise drawing on his extensive past experience as a war correspondent to uncover some remarkable tales. Narrated by Michael Douglas, the film has a recurring theme of collaboration by those once on opposite sides of a bitter conflict, such as the former IRA killer Pat Magee, who now works with the daughter of the British MP Sir Anthony Berry, for whose death Magee was responsible.

Then there are Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa, former religious militia leaders in Nigeria who laid down arms to set up an inter-faith mediation centre.

"In the past I engaged young men and trained them to hate Muslims," Pastor Wuye told the Herald . "I lost my hand in a fight in 1992 with Muhammad's boys. But then I realised that I could not preach Jesus Christ and hate the Muslims."

One Tree Films is in discussions with Australian distributors about a cinema release within the next three months, and the film is up for an award at next month's Monaco International Film Festival.

"I think the timing of this is right," Wise said.

"We've just had - with the election of Obama - a mass-scale act of reconciliation in many ways and that has got people thinking positively about the kind of change that is possible in the world."

The release date for Soldiers Of Peace will be announced soon on the film's website, soldiersofpeacemovie.com.