Kiwi-linked films in line for Oscars

Matt Damon plays Francois Pienaar in <i>Invictus</i>. Photo / Supplied

Next year's Oscar ceremony could be the most New Zealand-flavoured Academy Awards since Lord of the Rings: Return of the King swept all before it in 2004.

Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, and the Clint Eastwood's Invictus, featuring the All Blacks, are expected to be contenders for best picture in the March awards.

Much-hyped James Cameron picture Avatar will give designers and digital wizards Richard Taylor and Tania Rodger an opportunity to add to their Oscar haul.

Their Wellington company Weta Digital is providing the special effects for the $290 million movie. The sci-fi epic - Cameron's first directing project since Titanic - is expected to be one of the largest 3-D projects ever.

Jackson's film, based on Alice Sebold's novel, is scheduled for release on December 11, a date delayed by the studio so it remains fresh in the minds of Academy Awards judges.

Released on the same day will be Eastwood's film, which examines the end of apartheid in South Africa through the lens of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and the Springboks' defeat of the All Blacks in the final.

Rugby fan Eastwood, whose strategic release of Gran Torino last December reaped huge box office returns, has called on major Hollywood stars to fill the roles of rugby players and President Nelson Mandela.

Morgan Freeman will play Mandela, whose donning of the South African rugby jersey at the final was considered a masterstroke in uniting South Africans in a sport dominated by Afrikaners.

Freeman had wanted to make a film about Mandela after failing to adapt his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom.

He bought the rights to the book the film is based on, journalist John Carlin's Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World.

A bleach-haired Matt Damon plays South African captain Francois Pienaar. It is not yet known who will play All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick.

Eastwood has even called on the help of his family for the feature. His son Scott is believed to have the role of Springbok first five-eighths Joel Stransky.

Scott Eastwood has previously had roles in his father's films Gran Torino and Flags of Our Fathers, and also appeared in An American Crime and Pride.

The task of filling All Black Jonah Lomu's boots went to Samoan Zak Feaunati, a former rugby representative for Bath.

The challenge of performing a haka in audition before a famously steely faced Eastwood earned Feaunati - who has no acting experience - the role.

Screenwriter Anthony Peckham will tie together the threads of Mandela's release from prison, his election in South Africa's first post-apartheid election, and Mandela's use of the World Cup as a symbol of unity between blacks and whites.