Invictus

Invictus (2009)

Timing: 2:14 (134 min)

7.189/10
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7.611/10
31732

7.3/10
174000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 15

Actors and characters

Release date

2009-12-11

Country

United States

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Malpaso Productions, Liberty Pictures, Revelations Entertainment

Genre

Drama, History

Budget

$60 000 000

Revenue

$122 056 899

Website

http://invictusmovie.warnerbros.com

Director

Clint Eastwood

Actors

Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon, Tony Kgoroge, Patrick Mofokeng, Matt Stern, Julian Lewis Jones, Adjoa Andoh, Marguerite Wheatley, Leleti Khumalo, Patrick Lyster
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Clint Eastwood, Mace Neufeld, Robert Lorenz, Lori McCreary, Morgan Freeman, Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber, Tim Moore

Operator

Tom Stern

Composer

Kyle Eastwood

Artist

Audition

Fiona Weir

Editing

Joel Cox, Gary D. Roach
All team (34)

• The film is based on John Carlin's book "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation" (2008).
• Nelson Mandela himself said that only Morgan Freeman could play him. Freeman was the first actor to be approved.
• Morgan Freeman was friends with Nelson Mandela for many years. The actor prepared for his role by reviewing some recordings of his comrade to refine his accent and speech rhythm. Nevertheless, the most difficult task was to portray Mandela's charisma, which is impossible to copy: “I didn’t want to act like him, I wanted to be him. When you meet Mandela, you know you are in the presence of greatness. He inspires people to be better, that is his calling in life. Some call it the magic of Madiba. I’m not sure magic can be explained.”
• Morgan Freeman is left-handed, but to play Nelson Mandela as accurately as possible, he trained himself to work with his right hand in scenes where it was visible that he was writing, because Mandela is right-handed.
• Before filming began, Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary traveled to South Africa to receive Nelson Mandela's blessing for working on the film.
• During the filming of the games, there were only about 2,000 extras in the stands. Using a special technique, the visual effects team was able to increase the number of fans to 62,000.
• Matt Damon visited Francois Pienaar to ask the athlete for help in preparing for his role. When Damon arrived at his house, Pienaar opened the door and they simply stared at each other for a few minutes. Then Damon said, "On screen, I look much bigger." The joke eased the tension between the men, and Pienaar prepared an exquisite dinner for Damon. Later, Francois Pienaar said he was impressed by Damon: "He's a great guy, I was struck by his humility and mischievous sense of humor. He wanted to learn everything he could about me, my captain's philosophy, and what it was like for us in 1995. We also talked about playing rugby, what happens during training, and the technical aspects. We had a lot of fun."
• During the filming of this movie, Clint Eastwood became a fan of rugby. While in South Africa, he watched rugby for hours every night and discussed the game every morning. Eventually, he began to enjoy the sport.
• Nelson Mandela's favorite band, the Soweto String Quartet, was involved in the making of the film.
• All the rugby games were filmed at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg, where they actually took place.
• Scenes taking place outside Nelson Mandela's house were filmed at his actual residence in Johannesburg, while scenes taking place inside were filmed in a house in Cape Town.
• The film is based on John Carlin's book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation” (2008).
• The poem that Mandela gives to François was written by English poet William Ernest Henley and is titled “Invictus”.