WILLIAM NICHOLSON - DARK SIDE OF MANDELA TO BE REVEALED IN FILM

DARK SIDE OF MANDELA TO BE REVEALED IN FILM

British screen writer WILLIAM NICHOLSON will controversially depict NELSON MANDELA as a "rabbit on acid" in an upcoming biopic about the former South African leader's life. Nicholson, who has been working on a screenplay about the ex-president for five years, claims Mandela had plenty of vices which people prefer to forget. While he helped to stamp out Apartheid in the country, the Gladiator co-writer insists Mandela's personal life was often troubled - through his own fault. He says, "He was politically magnificent, but there was also a dark side to him. "He screwed around like a rabbit on acid in his early life. When you are that committed to the struggle you destroy everyone else around you and that is what happened with him. He was a one-man disaster zone. "He was a source of great strain to his mother, and his first wife became a Jehovah's Witness, which is a form of mental suicide. I even think Winnie's subsequent collapse was down to this aspect of him." The as-yet-untitled movie is scheduled to begin shooting next year (08).