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Friday
05Jun2009

Clint Eastwood's Mandela Movie Due December 11th

DateFriday, June 5, 2009 at 6:25AM
You wouldn't expect one of the oldest directors in show business to be one of the busiest, but 79-year-old Clint Eastwood just keeps on going. He released two films in three months last year, and Gran Torino earned over $150 million on the strength of Clint being Clint. A remarkable story, really, because there might be ten movie stars in Hollywood who can do that at half his age.

His latest film is an ambitious story of how rugby helped Nelson Mandela heal South African bad blood after the dissolving of Apartheid. Mandela was imprisoned for over a quarter century, and soon after his release, was elected president.

The film's working title had been The Human Factor, which sounds a bit sci-fi, and Variety reports that the new title is Invictus, which sounds a bit like a sword-and-sandal affair. Invictus stars Morgan Freeman as Mandela, and he's sure to be an Oscar front runner at this point, just given the circumstances.

Matt Damon co-stars, playing Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South African rugby team.

Warner Bros. has also announced a release date for Invictus, the other clue that Freeman will get a Best Actor push (along with the traditional campaign for Eastwood). You can look for the film on December 11th, the same day Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones arrives in theaters. Is it really time to think about the Oscars again? Wow, that didn't take long.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

Rugby World Cup 1995 was amazing. Can't wait for this film. Just hope they do the rugby scenes justice

Friday, June 5, 2009 | Unregistered Commenterjonny

That's a great point, actually. Clearly it's not a sports movie, but there has to be a lot of attention paid to those scenes or it will lose its punch.

Friday, June 5, 2009 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

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