BELAFONTE THE LATEST TO PLAN MANDELA FILM BIO

South Africa is a hot property in Hollywood.

A proposed ABC miniseries about liberation movement leaders Nelson and Winnie Mandela is the third screen project to deal with the Mandelas and their fight against apartheid. The as-yet-untitled drama was brought to ABC by Harry Belafonte, and, according to Belafonte’s spokeswomen, tentatively will star Sidney Poitier, Jane Fonda and Marlon Brando. Fay Kanin has been set to write the script for the projected five-hour miniseries.

The Belafonte project--which ABC has yet to approve for production--joins an earlier announced Mandela drama being developed for Home Box Office and one in preparation by Camille Cosby, Bill Cosby’s wife, as a possible miniseries or theatrical film.

It’s not unusual for producers to jump on a timely topic, such as unrest in South Africa. Nelson Mandela--who has been imprisoned for the last 24 years--and his wife Winnie, who carries on his fight for liberation of blacks in South Africa, are natural focal points.

Yet it is likely that one or more of these projects may never see the light of the TV screen.

“Most of these projects are in development, so the network has to be approve a screenplay,” said producer David Wolper, who isn’t involved with a South African project but who was asked to comment on the projects based on his experience producing such major miniseries as “Roots,” “The Thorn Birds” and “North and South.” Preliminary deals, Wolper continued, “don’t mean the script will be good enough to bring into production. Maybe one, maybe none (of the projects) will have scripts that are good enough.”

When three projects deal with the same subject matter, he added, “then it had better be a terrific script to go ahead with it.”

Belafonte said via representatives that he has been nurturing “a film about the lives of the Mandelas and the saga of South Africa” for two years.

Camille Cosby’s project would have a more feminist approach. “She feels that the life of Winnie Mandela is not only a story of major international significance, but it’s also a story of a powerful woman,” said Norman Brokaw, Bill Cosby’s agent of 21 years, who now represents Camille.

Robert (Buzz) Burger, an executive producer at Titus Productions, which is developing the proposed HBO special, was not available for comment.

Rights can also prove to be a competitive area where one or more projects might lose. Cosby reportedly has secured rights to “Mother of a Nation,” the authorized biography of Winnie Mandela by Nancy Harrison. Yet an announcement of the Belafonte project claims he has “exclusive worldwide rights to the life stories of the Mandelas” as well as rights to “Nelson Mandela: The Man and the Movement,” by South African writer Mary Benson.

Will “exclusive” rights conflict with access to an “authorized” biography? Often, it is up to attorneys to decide such issues--and in turn, network executives, as they decide whether to give a green light to production.

In part because of the competition, details about such similar projects often are cloudy. Both ABC and HBO as policy do not comment on projects in development.

Early on Tuesday morning, spokesmen for both Poitier and Fonda said that these stars definitely were not involved in Belafonte’s miniseries. Later in the morning, Poitier’s representative amended that statement, saying that he was “unaware” of Poitier’s involvement.

Still later, Fonda’s press agent, Stephen Rivers, called to say that, in fact, Fonda “very much wants to be involved” in the Mandela story. But he added, “Obviously, a script has to be written and Jane has to juggle this with her other projects.”

Burger was reported to be en route to Africa, but when asked if he was making the trip to scout locations for the HBO project, an assistant said, “We’re not allowed to give out that information.”