• Joel Coen shows up at an east coast screening of “Somewhere” to conduct a Q&A with Sofia Coppola. [Inside Movies]
• Tom O’Neill reports that the HFPA has classified “Country Strong” as a drama. [Gold Derby]
• Our own Guy Lodge reacts to the recently released (and apparently unauthorized) “Winnie” trailer. [The Guardian]
Thanks to reader Nicolas Mancuso for tipping me off to this extended promo trailer for “Winnie,” Darrell James Roodt’s Winnie Mandela biopic with Jennifer Hudson in her first dramatic headlining role. I was sceptical of this project when it was announced a year ago, and I’m afraid the trailer has only exacerbated my fears. A big-name screen treatment was always likely to smooth over some of the uglier wrinkles in Ms. Mandela’s personal and political life, but this looks to be a shameless whitewash job: seeing this troubled, charismatic criminal (and arguable murderess) given the fawning violin treatment, complete with laudatory intertitles like “Her Courage” and “Her Strength,” leaves a very sour taste indeed. (More, and the embedded trailer, after the cut.)
While South Africa’s currently high Hollywood profile is putting smiles on the faces (and much-needed cash in the pockets) of many figures in the country’s film industry, it appears that not all local actors are as pleased.
The Guardian reports that a number of prominent local thesps have spoken out against the casting of bankable American stars in plum South African parts — most notably Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in “Invictus,” and Jennifer Hudson as his ex-wife Winnie in a separate biopic:
Oupa Lebogo, general secretary of the CWU [Creative Workers’ Union], said of Hudson’s casting, announced last month: “This decision must be reversed, it must be stopped now. If the matter doesn’t come up for discussion, we will push for a moratorium to be placed on the film being cast in South Africa. We are being undermined, there is no respect at all … We can’t allow this to happen. We have people who can play the role far better than Jennifer.”
The award-winning actor John Kani said Freeman had asked him how he felt about an African-African playing the former president. He said he understood the economics but lamented the fact that “I wasn’t even asked”.
The current vogue for South African-focused cinema continues apace. With Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman applying A-list Hollywood polish to the figure of former president Nelson Mandela, Jennifer Hudson is now set to do the same for his ex-wife.
Rumors about this have been circling for some time, but yesterday Variety confirmed that Hudson has signed on for “Winnie,” a full-scale biopic of the controversial politician, most notorious for her alleged (ahem) involvement in the murder of a 14 year-old activist in 1989.
South African director Darrell James Roodt (an Oscar nominee for 2004’s “Yesterday”) is at the helm. He also co-wrote the screenplay, based on Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s 2003 biography “Winnie Mandela: A Life.” (Emma Gilbey’s superb “The Lady” would be a better starting point, in my opinion.)