Stringer Bell is about to get legitimate. According to a report at Flickering Myth, The Wire star Idris Elba is lined up to portray South African president Nelson Mandela in an upcoming biopic. Details are scarce, only that it is an “official” biopic with production set to kick off next year.
Will Smith and Denzel Washington have both previously been attached to play the figure, but it is unknown who is behind the project. We’ve recently seen Mandela portrayed by Terrence Howard in Winnie, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood‘s Invictus. Neither capture his entire life, so it will be interesting to see Elba take on this character.
Despite having fun in films like Takers, The Losers and last summer’s Thor, Elba hasn’t had a chance to have a meaty feature film role. We’ll see him in huge tentpoles like Ridley Scott’s Prometheus this June, and Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim the following summer, but hopefully this Mandela biopic will give him some deserved recogntion.
What do you think about Elba possibly portraying Mandela?