Hi Brad! I am really looking forward to the more "serious" films coming out in the fall. Invictus shouold be a fine film.

Interesting, for once I didn't even recognize Morgan Freeman. I dunno what the story's about but I'm intrigued by Freeman's performance here. To play a living icon would be a daunting task for any actor. There are all sorts of traps a performer can fall into with a role like this but Freeman's a great screen actor & combined with Eastwood's typically austere, stripped-down direction this could be a very fine movie indeed.

Are Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood joined at the hip? Morgan is a fine actor but I would have liked to see more adventuresome casting for Nelson Mandela…perhaps a native African, particularly S. African. The same goes for Matt Damon. Believe it or not, S. Africa has some fine actors. Anyone see the irony of not casting a black S. African in this film and recognizing his talent?

Hollywood needs to break its incestuous strangle hold on casting, especially when filming an international story. Another film coming out next year from S.Africa is "The Bang, Bang Club." It's the story of the S. African photo journalists who risked their lives and well being to film the break up of apartheid and the violence that subsequently erupted in the townships. It has two Canadian actors (Taylor Kitsch and Malin Ackerman) and an American (Ryan Phillippe) but the rest of the cast, all of the crew, the writers, director and most of the producers are S. African.

We'll have to see how the two films each shake out.

This has Oscar nomination written all over it.

@Patricia: for some reason Clint Eastwood is always accused of Racism… its a hollywood movie with large sums of money involved and it probably needs big name stars to draw general attention towards the movie… in my limited knowledge i can think of only one actor of SA origins and she's the big name hollywood star Charlize Theorn… so while you make valid points for use of more native stars i dont see any reason to criticize this casting… afterall it is only a mark of a truly brilliant actor how he can sell the Character – accent et all…

@viral: I'm not accusing Clint Eastwood of racism. I don't even suspect it. I'm accusing him of taking part in Hollywood elitism. Of course, he's not the only hand in this movie. There's a studio and producers and all kinds of suits that call the shots.

But wouldn't it have been a spectacular thing if this film had contained S. Africans playing S. Africans? I think so. And Clint Eastwood would have been just the hand to have accomplished it. It's a squandered opportunity.

"The Bang Bang Club" brought in Hollywood actors too. Possibly for the same reasons you state above. But two of the leads are S. African and I know from reading the posts about the film that all the background actors are S. African. Also, all of the extras are from the townships where the incidents they are recounting took place. That's at least a step in the right direction.

I was fortunate to meet Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon while they were filming in Cape Town, South Africa, and spent two days on set. I definitely understand what you mean by Hollywood elitism, but I was pleasantly surprised when on set – every single crew member (with the exception of ONE security guard) was locally hired. And the S. Africans in the neighborhood I was staying in were all very impressed with Mr. Eastwood and with Hollywood in general for "doing so much for the economy and unemployment" there by hiring locally. I was proud of them! Can't wait to see the finished product in December.

@Nikki Z: I was waiting for someone from S.Africa to offer their opinion. Thank you. I've been reading about the new movie studio that was recently completed in Cape Town. It seems Nigeria and S. Africa are the leading film makers in Africa and now S. Africa is the most technologically advanced.

In my opinion, after Sidney Portier, there's no one else in this whole world can be more ideal and capable to portray Nelson Mandela than Morgan Freeman…
With Clint Eastwood as the director, and Matt Damon to complete the cast, this movie has everything to hope for..

Can't wait to watch it… Hope it will be as good as expected…

What a pleasure it was to have Invictus shot in Cape Town, Clint Eastwood was amazing and dynamic, full of energy, quite unbelievable. Morgan Freeman really captured the spirit of Nelson Mandela. He was brilliant.