Damon to be Pienaar

Matt Damon will play former Springbok captain Francois Pienaar in a Clint Eastwood-directed film about the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Damon won an Academy Award for his screen writing in Good Will Hunting. Unable to make a movie of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, the new film will also feature Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela. The film is based on an upcoming book from Penguin by British author and former South African journalist John Carlin, Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. Carlin he left South Africa 20 years ago to avoid military conscription. The film is set for release by Warner Bros. towards the end of next year.