Johannesburg  - The filmaker who will direct the biopic of former South African president Nelson Mandela has described his recent meeting with the anti-apartheid icon as "inspirational."

British director Tom Hooper, who will direct the film adaptation of Mandela's best-selling autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, and the film's South African producer Anant Singh met the 90-year-old anti-apartheid icon in Johannesburg last week, Singh's company said in a statement Friday.

Hooper said having the opportunity to meet Mandela was "inspirational" for someone entrusted with the responsibility of telling his story.

"Nelson Mandela is a towering figure of our times, and it has been a great privilege to have had the opportunity to meet him and to watch and listen as he talked," he said.

The film is a long-running project of Singh's. US actor Morgan Freeman has been tipped for the role of Mandela.

"This is a challenging and daunting task and there is no compromise. As a result, it has taken a longer time than one would have liked," Singh, the country's best-known producer, conceded.

Hooper has directed several films and TV series, including Red Dust, the film adaptation of a book about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the award-winning mini-series John Adams about the the second US president and the soon-to-be-released The Damned United, the story of a coach of English football club Leeds United.

Another film about Mandela, also based on a book, is currently being shot in South Africa, starring US actor Matt Damon.

The film tells the story of the Springboks' landmark victory in the 1995 rugby World Cup, a year after Mandela was elected president, and how Mandela used the tournament to further reconciliation between black and white South Africans.

Damon plays Francois Pienaar, the then Springboks captain.