Damon really is Human

After mulling it over since the project was first announced, Matt Damon has formally signed on to star in Clint Eastwood’s HUMAN FACTOR. Damon will star alongside Morgan Freeman in the drama about Nelson Mandela and how he used rugby to help post-apartheid relations in South Africa. Damon won’t pull a Robert Downey, Jr./TROPIC THUNDER to star as Mandela leaving that to Freeman (though after his tour de force performance as a human/bear hybrid [right], you never know). He’ll play one of the rugby players, Francois Pienaar, who befriended Mandela and helped him snag the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The script by Anthony Peckham is based on the book by John Carlin “”The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World.” And here I thought Parcheesi was the game that changed the world… FACTOR will be Eastwood’s next film after GRAN TURINO, which is expected to begin shooting this summer. Damon is currently filming THE INFORMANT for Steven Soderbergh and will take the fall off before heading off to South Africa in early 2009.