Tag Archives: Deon Meyer

Federation MEAC adapting Meyer novel

Federation MEAC, the subsidiary of France’s Federation Studios focusing on the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean, has teamed up with South African crime author Deon Meyer to adapt his international bestseller Fever for television.

Deon Meyer

Fever is an epic post-apocalyptic survival novel that follows a young boy and his father through a desolate South Africa after a virus has killed off most of the world’s population. The story is primarily seen through the youngster’s eyes, as the pair try to build a new community from the ashes of the old one.

The adaptation is part of a three-project deal between Meyer’s South African production company Scene 23 and Federation MEAC. Further details of the other Scene 23 projects will be announced soon, said Federation MEAC.

The latter company has also unveiled two other new projects with other partners: A Girl to Marry and Harlem Hellfighters.

A Girl to Marry is a TV comedy series about mixed couples in France, co-developed and coproduced with Clémentine Vaudaux from Narcos prodco Gaumont and written by Lise Barembaum.

Harlem Hellfighters, meanwhile, is an animated documentary series directed by Sonia Rolland (An Unexpected Destiny) that tells the true story of the first African American battalion to fight on European soil during the First World War. The project is being written by Fadette Drouard (Papicha, The Sitting Duck, My Heroine) and Benjamin Hoffman (Spinners) for Canal+. It is coproduced with US producer Vic Bulluck (Judge Mathis, Windows on theWorld), SoMad Productions and French studio La Chouette Compagnie (Droners, Azuro & The Dragon’s Squad, Imago).

Federation MEAC said further announcements about its new productions would follow soon, including documentaries, an animated series with Ubisoft, two feature films for theatrical and platform releases and two more fiction series.

Meanwhile, the company is in production on the second season of Spinners, with head writers Sean Steinberg and Matthews Jankes in association with showrunner Benjamin Hoffman. The show is a coproduction between Federation MEAC and Natives at Large in South Africa for Canal+ and Showmax.

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MultiChoice, BBC adapt Meyer novel

UK pubcaster the BBC and South African pay TV group MultiChoice have teamed up for a five-part crime thriller based on Deon Meyer’s 2004 bestselling novel Devil’s Peak.

Produced by BBC Studios-owned Lookout Point and UK-based Expanded Media Productions, the show is written and created for television by Matthew Orton (Operation Finale, Moon Knight) and production has begun in Cape Town, where the show is set.

The 5×50’ series, also titled Devil’s Peak, will be delivered in 2023, with MultiChoice premiering it on M-Net in South Africa and distributing in sub-Saharan Africa, while BBC Studios will distribute in the rest of the world. South African production services are being provided by Film Afrika.

Devil’s Peak is described as a “multi-layered crime thriller.” The novel is the first in Meyer’s series of books focusing on detective Benny Griessel.

In the adaptation, Griessel is played by Hilton Pelser (Moffie, Glasshouse, Kissing Booth), while Sisanda Henna (Trackers, Rogue) plays a grieving father seeking justice after the murder of his son.

Rounding off the cast are Shamilla Miller (Blood & Water, Troy: Fall of a City) and Masasa Mbangeni (The Republic, Scandal). Jozua Malherbe (Griekwastad, Justice Served) is directing.

Associate producer Amy Jephta (Skemerdans, Barakat) is writing alongside Orton, who is exec producing with Laura Lankester from Lookout Point and Francis Hopkinson from Expanded Media. Yolisa Phahle, Allan Sperling and Jan du Plessis exec produce for M-Net, while Johann Knobel (Bad Sisters, The Shadow Line) is the producer.

Meyer said: “Benny Griessel started his fictitious life as a humble one-off cameo character, and never in my wildest dreams did I think he would one day be part of an international TV series.”

Yolisa Phahle, CEO of general entertainment and connected video at MultiChoice Group, added: “Not only is this an authentically South African story starring a South African cast, it is also filmed in our own backyard, benefiting several industries and economies beyond the television industry.”

MultiChoice previously adapted Meyer’s 2011 novel Trackers into a well-received drama series produced by Scene 24, Three River Studios, Helle Media and Scribe Studios. The show marked the first coproduction between M-Net, HBO’s sister network Cinemax and German public broadcaster ZDF.

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