Winnie Mandela Coming To The Big Screen
This year we have Morgan Freeman hitting the big screen as iconic first democratically-elected President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela in Invictus and now it looks like Jennifer Hudson is set to bring the President’s wife to life also in Winnie.
Based on the life of Winnie Mandela, the film will portray Winnie’s life by Mandela’s side, showing how she supported him through his fight for democracy, his imprisonment in 1964 right up until she found herself entangled in a scandal involving her bodyguard and death of a 14 year old boy who was allegedly an informer. This from Variety:
“Winnie” will be directed by Darrell J. Roodt, the veteran South African filmmaker whose 2006 film “Yesterday” was Africa’s Best Foreign Film nominee, and who also directed “Cry, The Beloved Country,” and “Sarafina!”
Andre Pieterse, Roodt and Paul L. Johnson wrote a script based on the Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob biography “Winnie Mandela:A Life.” Picture is being made with South African and Canadian money, with Pieterse producing with Michael Mosca of Canada’s Equinoxe Films.
“I was compelled and moved when I read the script,” Hudson said. “Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I’m honored to be the actress asked to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told.”
Hudson previously won an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls and starred last year in Sex in the City the movie.
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