Filming is set to begin May 31 on Winnie, the movie version of Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob's Winnie Mandela: A Life that will star Jennifer Hudson and Terrence Howard. Reuters reported that the film has encountered some legal entanglements, however, with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's lawyers contacting the filmmakers and "threatening to block it" because she "had asked to see and approve the script before the picture went ahead, but that its backers had refused."
"A lawyer's letter came some weeks ago," said producer Andre Pieterse. "It was a benign letter and yet it contained the threat of an indictment, an interdict that could stop the picture. She (Madikizela-Mandela)... would like to see the script and approve. (But) the film will be made based on a screenplay that was well researched and without any interference. If the film maligns her in any way then there will be legal basis for her to take action."
---
Dustin Hoffman and Anthony Hopkins will star in The Song of Names, adapted from Norman Lebrecht's novel. The film will be directed by Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog) and Jeffrey Caine (The Constant Gardener) is writing the screenplay, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
---
Producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey (An Education) are developing A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby. Variety reported that the movie "is set to shoot in the U.K. next spring. Scribe Jack Thorne has nearly completed adapting the screenplay." The director and a cast have not been chosen yet.