Matt Damon has signed up to star as South Africa rugby legend Francois Pienaar in a new film, Variety magazine reports.

Damon will star alongside Morgan Freeman in the Clint Eastwood-directed Human Factor, due to being filming in South Africa next year.

The film will focus on the life of the former South African president Nelson Mandela, played by Freeman, after the fall of the apartheid and during the campaign to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

The host nation went on to win the tournament after defeating New Zealand 15-12 in the final.

The World Cup ended with the iconic image of Mr Mandela dressed in a South African rugby shirt and cap handing Pienaar the famous Webb Ellis trophy.

The film will be based on the book, The Human Factor: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Changed the World, written by John Carlin.

And the screenplay for the big screen adaptation is being penned by Anthony Peckham.

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Going once….

Matt Damon is putting his black, messenger-style baby bag on the auction block.

Also up for grabs: The beachwood highchair that Julianne Moore’s daughter Liv calls her “grown-ups” chair and the Adidas track suit outfit worn by Mariska Hargitay’s son August.

The stars are teaming up for the Johnson’s Celebrity Hand Me Down Auction, which benefits the March of Dimes, Save the Children, Zero to Three and Baby Buggy, among other charities.

The online auction begins April 29th and ends May 9th.

Says The View’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck (who donated a car seat): “It is important to pass certain things on from one generation to the next.

“I still have a children’s bracelet that my mother gave to me, which I will pass on to my daughter one day. There is something priceless about having certain things around you which tell a story.”

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Matt Damon, George Clooney, Elle MacPherson, Thandie Newton, Helena Bonham Carter, and Tim Burton leaving the Harpers Bazaar dinner at L’Atelier in London, England, last night.

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Matt Damon arriving at Nobu in London, England, yesterday.

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Matt Damon and his wife Luciana are expecting a baby, his rep confirms to Usmagazine.com.

Luciana, 32, sported a baby bump while walking the red carpet with Damon at the Empire Awards in London last night, where Damon won Best Film for Bourne Ultimatum.

There, Damon, 37, told Us that he’d “love to come” to London and do a play, “but at the moment I am Daddy and I have to make sure I work around the family and the time the kids are getting up and going to bed — everything revolves around them.”

The couple are already parents to Isabella, born June 2006, and Alexia, 9, from Luciana’s previous marriage.

They were married Dec. 9, 2006 in a ceremony performed by a justice of the peace in New York City, Us Weekly first reported.

Damon is currently in Morocco filming CIA drama Green Zone.

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On the heels of ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ winning three Academy Awards, Daily Variety reports that Universal Studios has wrangled Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass to commit to a fourth Jason Bourne film.

In junket interviews for ‘Ultimatum,’ Damon had implied he was done with the franchise after three movies. But huge box office and a close working relationship with Greengrass — who directed ‘The Bourne Supremacy‘ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ — may have been the deciding factors in his choice to return.

Sunday night, ‘The Bourne Ultimatum‘ scored a hat trick with Oscars for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.

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