Invictus
Invictus is a 2009 biographical sports film directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, making it the third collaboration between Eastwood and Freeman after Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004). The story is based on the 2008 John Carlin book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation about the events in South Africa before and during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The Springboks were not expected to perform well, the team having only recently returned to high-level international competition following the dismantling of apartheid—the country was hosting the World Cup, thus earning an automatic entry. Freeman portrays South African President Nelson Mandela while Damon played Francois Pienaar, the captain of the Springboks, the South Africa rugby union team.
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| Based on | Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation
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| Production company | Liberty Pictures |
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| Running time | 133 minutes
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| Budget | $50–60 million
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| Box office | $122.2 million
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Francois Pienaar: No. Tomorrow's taken care of, one way or another. I was thinking about how you spend 30 years in a tiny cell, and come out ready to forgive the people who put you there.
- Nelson Mandela himself has said that only Morgan Freeman could portray him. And so Freeman was the first actor cast.
- During the making of this film, Clint Eastwood became a fan of rugby. While in South Africa, he would watch hours of rugby every night and come in the next morning and talk about the games. Eventually, he began to enjoy the games.
- Morgan Freeman replaces the word "chance" with the word "fate" in the third line of the second stanza of the poem "Invictus".
- Nelson Mandela gave the welcoming speech of Rugby World Cup 1995 at Newlands and he was wearing a colorful shirt. When he is shot watching the opening game, he is seen wearing a tie. That day, the whole stadium chanted "Nelson, Nelson" setting the tone for the rest of the tournament.
- Clint Eastwood expressed interest in Remo Vinzens playing the part of François Pienaar.
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