Naomie Harris is busy playing the spy game as part of the Skyfall cast, and now it looks like she’ll be taking on a real-life figure, entering talks to play Winnie Mandela in Long Walk To Freedom.
If she does sign a deal, she’ll likely be playing opposite Idris Elba as iconic prisoner-turned-world figure Nelson Mandela in the biopic, which will cover a large span of his life.
Gladiator’s William Nicholson has written the script for the film, which will shoot across South Africa, including scenes on Robben Island, where Mandela spent nearly 20 of his 27 years in prison.
Screen Daily also reports that The Other Boleyn Girl’s Justin Chadwick – who worked with Harris on 2010’s true-life tale The First Grader – is in talks to direct the movie. He’s not the first person who has been attached: the likes of Shekhar Kapur and Tom Hooper have both flirted with the idea, but it has never quite come together, even when Morgan Freeman was linked to the role of Mandela (he got that chance elsewhere, thanks to Clint Eastwood and Invictus.)
Elba has not yet been 100% confirmed either, though he’s talked up the part in recent interviews. But with any luck, producer Anant Singh might finally see this thing come to life…