Freeman is in a state of rare excitement now, because after many years and several apparent failures, his most prized project is getting ready to shoot, and with old pal Eastwood at the helm.
Freeman, as has been his dream, will play Mandela.
"It's been our dream for 15 years," Freeman said. "We've been preparing to do a Mandela project, and this one just sort of magically appeared out of nowhere, as they do when they are meant to happen."
He'd made several dead-end attempts to adapt Mandela's sprawling autobiography, a 700-page tome that defeated some of Hollywood's best screenwriters. The script never took shape and Freeman was stymied.
Then Freeman found Roger Carlin's book "The Human Factor," an account of South Africa's role as host of the 1995 World Cup Rugby Match. During apartheid, the nation had been banned from the world cup. Mandela knew that hosting the event could be an event of immense symbolic and psychological importance, and that turned out to be true.
"The Human Factor" suddenly gave Freeman a way to frame the complex issues arising from apartheid in the underdog-sports-movie format that was easy to sell and much easier to write. He went to South Africa a few months ago to seek - and attained - Mandela's approval.
"The story of the South Africa/New Zealand rugby match of '95, with South Africa of course as the underdogs, could be a magical movie," Freeman said. "It's almost unbelievable to say, but the match was one of the defining moments in new South Africa's history. It was a healing moment, and it showed that they could do it, that they were a country."
Freeman has become friends with Mandela. He's visited the leader several times and spent a great deal of time in his company, preparing for the hoped-for moment when he might play him on screen.
