"Anant Singh is turning the story of Nelson Mandela into a big screen epic capturing his life from childhood, to political awareness, 10 000 days of imprisonment and finally freedom.
"It's a very prestigious project, but also a very daunting task. Everybody feels - and rightly so - about Mr Mandela and his life. People take possession of it," producer Anant Singh said. 'When you have to make a movie out of his life in under three hours it's not easy.'
"Mandela became the international symbol of resistance to the apartheid system in South Africa. His release after 27 years in jail and eventual transition to the country's first post-apartheid president from 1994 to 1999 is almost the stuff of fairytales.
"The film will be based on his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, which carries an emotive account of his first moments of freedom, likely to be at the heart of the new movie.
"Veteran actor Morgan Freeman has won the role of portraying the man who became for many a modern hero, and has acknowledged it is a daunting task.
Script writer William Nicholson, who also worked on Sarafina!, Gladiator and Shadowlands, is adapting Long Walk to Freedom into a screenplay to be directed by Indian film-maker Shekhar Kapur, who made his name with Elizabeth, Bandit Queen and The Four Feathers."
Anant Singh received the prestigious Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum and in his acceptance speech said that : "I owe my being to South Africa," he said, "the country that did not allow me to go to film school because that was a school for whites only; a country that did not allow me to watch a film that I produced with the director who was white because cinemas were segregated."
Having lived through the slice of history of the man whose story he will be bringing to the screen, I am guessing that this will be about as epic as Lawrence of Arabia, one of my favorite films of all time. From my perspective - Anant Singh, Nelson Mandela, and Lawrence all pursued amazing and transforming paths.
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