Invictus gets date

Film fans it’s time to mark down December 11th, 2009 on your calendar as a day of note. Already the release date of Peter Jackson’s second post-Frodo film THE LOVELY BONES, it has just been selected as the release date for Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela-centric INVICTUS. Originally titled THE HUMAN FACTOR, the film stars Morgan Freeman as Mandela, and focusses on his attempt to use the 1995 Rugby World Cup to heal his nation following his release from prison, the fall of apartheid and his election as president of South Africa. Matt Damon stars as the captain of the South African rugby team.

for the better part of this decade, Eastwood has been one of America’s most prolific directors, and it will be interesting to see how his film fares against Jackson’s THE LOVELY BONES, both of which are being released in the heart of awards season. I’m taking bets.