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Blueberry wrote:

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Winnie who? Will that movie be a oscar contender?

Wait...you're kidding. Right?



Here:

Jennifer Hudson to play Winnie Mandela in biopic Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson is to play Winnie Mandela in a biopic of the controversial ex-wife of South Africa's first black president.

By Nick Allen in Los Angeles Published: 12:09AM GMT 19 Nov 2009

Hudson, a former American idol contestant, won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2007 for her performance in the musical "Dreamgirls".

"I was compelled and moved when I read the script," she told Daily Variety.

"Winnie Mandela is a complex and extraordinary woman and I'm honoured to be the actress to portray her. This is a powerful part of history that should be told."

The film will be directed by South African film-maker Darrell J Roodt, whose films include "Cry, The Beloved Country" and "Sarafina". His film Yesterday was the country's nominee for best foreign film at the 2006 Oscars. Hudson, a former American Idol contestant who won her Oscar for a bravura supporting turn in the musical Dreamgirls, will take the lead role and is also expected to sing the theme song.

Winnie Mandela rose to prominence during the apartheid era. In the absence of her husband she became an increasingly powerful figure in the African National Congress and vigorously campaigned for his release.

He spent 27 years in jail and was released in 1990. Their marriage fell apart a few years later.

Winnie Mandela's image was later tarnished by a series of scandals including her links to the kidnap and murder of a young activist and a 2003 conviction for fraud.

The film will be shot in South Africa, including Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent much of his captivity.