William Nicholson blames the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave for the failure of the Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom.
Nicholson, who spent 15 years working on the Nelson Mandela biopic script spoke before a crowd at the Hay Festival and said that while he is happy with the end result, "it didn't get the kind of acclaim that I wanted."
According to The Independent, he then placed the blame on 12 Years because Americans "were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don't think there was much left over to be nice about our film."
Nicholson also said that Nelson Mandela's speeches were very boring and required the scribe to punch them up for the film, notes The Guardian. "All but one ... were made up by me because his own are so boring. I know it sounds outrageous to say a thing like that, but when he came out of prison he made a speech and, God, you fell asleep."
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nicholson's film still has not made up its $35 million budget, which is sure to grate on him when you consider Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave raked in over $140 million before the Academy Awards.
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