Chiwetel Ejiofor To Play South African President Thabo Mbeki

Very recently, fellow online colleague Ed Douglas of Comingsoon.net sent me a tidbit he got when he interviewed Chiwetel Ejiofor for his latest film, 'Redbelt'. While speaking about the David Mamet film, Ejiofor also mentioned to Douglas that he's also set to play South African President Thabo Mbeki in Pete Travis's 'Endgame'.

Co-starring with William Hurt, he'd start the rehearsal process on Monday before going down to South Africa to shoot the film.

'Endgame' is a feature-length thriller for England's Channel 4 about the end of Apartheid in South Africa.

In an interview Douglas had with Travis months ago while promoting 'Vantage Point', Travis spoke about the premise of the film, stating, 'It just so happens that 'Endgame' is a true story set in South Africa about the secret talks that brought down the Apartheid regime, and it's a political thriller dealing with the politics of South Africa at that time, but it's equally a story about hope and about two men who hate each other at the beginning of the movie, because they're enemies, who basically have to learn to trust each other or otherwise, the future of their country is in jeopardy. The very fact that they're even talking to each other is dangerous for them, and their lives are in danger because the ANC at that point were terrorists and the white Africanische government would never speak to them publicly, and the white Africanische, the ANC should never talk to them. These bunch of guys met secretly in England and that was one of the things that contributed to the end of Apartheid. It was just a fascinating story for me about people trying to be more than they were.' blackvoices