Matt Damon will join Morgan Freeman in the Clint Eastwood-directed rugby drama The Human Factor. Variety reports that Damon will play rugby star Francois Pienaar, who created, with Nelson Mandela, an event that gave South Africans a common cause to rally around as the country was trying to heal from the wounds of apartheid.
Freeman will play Mandela, who, after spending 27 years in prison, supported South Africa’s Springboks rugby club when the country was chosen to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The Springboks had previously been banned from international competition because of the country’s apartheid practices.
In an epic final, the Springboks beat New Zealand to take the Cup. Mandela then presented the trophy to captain Pienaar, an Afrikaner, in a move seen as a major step in the reconciliation of white and black South Africans.
The film is based on the book The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World by John Carlin.
Shooting is set to begin early next year in South Africa.
Damon recently finished the Paul Greengrass-directed Green Zone, based on Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s 2006 book Imperial Life in Emerald City. He is starring for Steven Soderbergh in The Informant. Variety says the actor plans to rest up in the fall and make Human Factor his next starring role.
