Clint Eastwood pondering The Human Factor

It’s already got Morgan Freeman signed on to play Nelson Mandela, and now The Human Factor - the story of Mandela’s life just after the end of apartheid and his release from prison – may be getting a top-class director in Clint Eastwood.

And that’s not all – part of the reason Eastwood is pondering the pic is because Warner Brothers is considering pumping money into the finance of it, bringing along Matt Damon, who’s in early talks to play the captain of South Africa’s Springbok rugby team.

Why the Springbok’s – Human Factor’s plot adapts John Carlin’s book, which saw Mandela seize the opportunity for a little healing in the country through hosting the 1995 Rugby World Cup. It was an especially potent symbol since the South African team had been barred from competing during the 1980s in a protest over apartheid.

Morgan Freeman reached out to his old Million Dollar Baby mucker, and if Eastwood approves the script – written by Anthony Peckham – he may well sit in the big folding chair. It’ll have to wait, though – he first has to make The Changeling with Angelina Jolie.