Oscar-winner will star opposite Vince Vaughn in Roland Joffé’s The Archbishop and the Antichrist, about Tutu’s meetings with an Afrikaner serial killer seeking redemption

A terrifying turn as the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin won Forest Whitaker an Oscar in 2007. Now the American actor is to play a markedly different, but equally notable African figure after signing on to star as Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a new post-apartheid drama.

Whitaker will play the South African anti-apartheid activist in The Archbishop and the Antichrist for French director Roland Joffé. The film is based on the Michael Ashton play of the same name, which details Tutu’s meetings with murderer Piet Blomfield who seeks redemption for his terrible crimes.

Vince Vaughn will star as Blomfield, a bigoted Afrikaner serial killer and a former member of an apartheid-era kill squad who opens up dialogue with Tutu by offering information about a missing black victim. The film is set in the post-apartheid era as Tutu carries out his work as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

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“Forest Whitaker brings a great sense of depth and power to all his performances and he is the perfect match for Tutu’s complex character,” said Tannaz Anisi, the president of production company 13 Films. “Vince Vaughn continues to prove his wide-ranging acting skills following his more dramatic roles in Into the Wild and the upcoming Hacksaw Ridge. Under the direction of Roland Joffé, their combined star power and talent is undeniable.”

Joffé, the Oscar-nominated director of The Killing Fields and The Mission, has co-written the screenplay for the The Archbishop and the Antichrist with Ashton. The film is expected to start shooting early next year.

Whitaker is currently filming the Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One, which hits cinemas in December 2016. He also plays a US colonel in the forthcoming science fiction drama Story of Your Life, which stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner in the tale of an alien visit to Earth.

