Wondering how Terrence Howard is coping this weekend as Iron Man 2 opens without him (he was replaced by Don Cheadle)? Well, he's just picked up a pretty plum role, one in which he'll play a real-life hero. Nelson Mandela, to be exact. According to Variety (via The Playlist), he's joining Jennifer Hudson in Winnie, which as you can tell by the title focuses mainly on Mandela's wife. Perhaps he can garner a second Oscar nomination with the gig, following Morgan Freeman's nod for playing the same figure in last year's Invictus. And if Howard is currently feeling a need to compete with Cheadle, such an honor would put him above his fellow Crash star in terms of nominations. At least until Cheadle's Miles Davis biopic comes out.

More casting bits after the jump.

Whether or not he eventually gets behind the wheel for Spy Hunter, Dwayne Johnson could pick up some extra stunt driving lessons through a role in Fast Five, the fourth sequel to The Fast and the Furious. Deadline says it's not set in stone yet and there's no word on the kind of part The Rock will play, but I'm going to take a guess here: he's another FBI agent after Vin Diesel's truck-jacking crew; the two muscular men have a huge fight that ends in a draw when they're forced to unite for a greater good, taking care of a couple of orphans. Hopefully if Johnson does sign on, this sequel will come out after his revenge action drama Faster, otherwise that will be mistaken for yet another Fast and Furious installment.

Speaking of Johnson, he may have inspired a Walking Tall co-star with his stint in Race to Witch Mountain, as Kevin Durand has been cast in D.J. Caruso's alien-teen movie I Am Number Four. Unlike Johnson's cabbie, though, Durand will be the film's baddie, an alien villain on the trail of escaped extraterrestrials Alex Pettyfer and Teresa Palmer. As FilmDrunk revealed a week ago, Durand's character is a Mogadorian called The Commander.

Heat Vision now confirms that casting, as well as another potential role for the actor, who recently returned for a few episodes of Lost and will be seen this summer as Little John in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. He may follow I Am Number Four with a role in DreamWorks' Real Steel, where he'd reunited with X-Men Origins: Wolverine star Hugh Jackman as a Texan robot-boxing promoter. Hopefully he'll also get in the ring as a big, fat Slurpee-drinking blob who can take on any steel opponent with his super-strong girth.