Rural Community Thriller ‘Snake’ Shows How Streamer Support Makes Smaller South African Stories Possible

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's section on the Buckingham Palace website has been significantly reduced in a major change.The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have now found themselves next to Prince Andrew on the family site, who has faced criticism for his friendship with convicted criminal Jeffrey Epstein. However, insiders say this is not a snub, reports the Mirror.The big update on the website also sees Harry's 2,700-word bio and Meghan's 1,300-word bio swapped for a sweet joint 500-word bio.

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor “Catch Me a Killer” comprises many firsts: It is a series about South Africa’s first-ever criminal profiler, the first-ever woman to occupy such a position and, now, the first-ever series entirely shot in South Africa to be in International Panorama competition at Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV festival. Abacus Media Rights(AMR), an Amcomri Entertainment company, handles world sales. Based on the eponymous book by psychologist Micki Pistorius, “Catch Me a Killer” sees “Game of Thrones” breakout Charlotte Hope in the lead role as the psychology professor turned serial killer profiler.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Indie streamer Mubi has acquired worldwide streaming rights to South African artist William Kentridge’s prestige series “Self-Portrait As a Coffee Pot” which explores how art is made in the digital age. The nine-episode series by Kentridge – who is celebrated around the world for his influential works comprising animation, installations, theater, opera and films – first previewed as a rough cut at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.

Naman Ramachandran Robert Schildhouse will serve in an expanded role at streamer BritBox International following the departure of global CEO Reemah Sakaan. Schildhouse, who previously had stints with Hulu and CBS, joined the streamer in 2022, with his most recent position being general manager, North America, and group editorial for BritBox International, where he was instrumental in driving the service’s business growth in the U.S. and Canada.

Naman Ramachandran Four African screenwriters will pitch stories spanning genres at the 15th edition of Series Mania in Lille, France. Pitching this year are Kelly-Eve Koopman (South Africa) with urban fantasy “Facing the Mountain”; Moreetsi Gabang (Botswana) with crime drama “Outreach”; Tiah Beye (Senegal/Côte d’Ivoire) with comedy-drama “Brouteure” (“The Yahoo Girl”); and Wanjiru Kairu (Kenya) with political satire “Serikali Saidia!” The shows are under the aegis of the AuthenticA Series Lab, a training program for African episodic screenwriters from Realness Institute.

France’s Canal+ has upped a buyout offer for African TV and streaming giant MultiChoice to around $1.77B.

Christopher Vourlias The anticipated goldrush for African creators sparked by Netflix’s 2016 entry into the market hasn’t entirely come to fruition, though the influx of investment from local and global streaming platforms has nevertheless been transformative for Africa’s screen industries. Budgets, production values and outputs are rising, and breakout hits — such as Netflix’s Nigerian thriller “The Black Book” and South African teen drama “Blood & Water” — highlight the power of global streaming services to deliver African stories to audiences around the world.

EXCLUSIVE: South Africa’s Showmax is to tell the unbelievable true story of a convicted murderer and rapist who faked his own death by burning in his cell and escaped prison for a year. Scroll down for a trailer.

Thinus Ferreira Guest Contributor Producing successful Black female-fronted comedy in South Africa is no joke but Black female producers and writers Reabetswe Moeti-Vogt and Zoe Ramushu are determined to bring about change in front of and behind the lens. Their film “Real Estate Sisters” screened this week at the 6th Joburg Film Festival in South Africa.

Christopher Vourlias As South Africa marks three decades since its first democratic elections, a historic moment that dismantled the apartheid system and ushered in Black-majority rule, the country is at a crossroads. Inequality is rife. Crippling blackouts have pushed the economy to a tipping point.

Christopher Vourlias Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions, which recently wrapped the action-thriller “G20” for Amazon Studios and MRC Film in Cape Town, is planning to return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee’s improbable journey to the U.S., the company’s head of film production and development, Melanie Clark, revealed this week at the Joburg Film Festival. Developing the film with a working title of “The Refugee,” Clark said Davis and Tennon’s production banner is “actively working on [it] with some local partners and are in the process of figuring out how to shoot it” in South Africa, adding that “we do plan to shoot that here.” The veteran production executive described the project as “the true story of a young Sierra Leonean boy who lost his mother in [the country’s civil war] and found himself alone, because no family would take him in any refugee camp.

EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a big one that multiple studios are bidding on right nowfrom Platinum Dunes: Wolf Night.

Christopher Vourlias South Africa’s Known Associates, the fast-growing parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (KAE) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, is launching into unscripted programming, Variety can reveal. The company has acquired a 60% stake in Zero Gravity, a production outfit founded in 2017 by former Endemol Shine Africa and Trace Studios CEO Sivan Pillay, and will team up with South African media giant Primedia to “relaunch multiple new high-end unscripted formats,” according to Pillay.

Christopher Vourlias Akin Omotoso, the filmmaker behind Disney Plus’ Giannis Antetokounmpo biopic “Rise,” has been attached to direct “The Plot to Save South Africa,” an adaptation of Justice Malala’s gripping book about a 1990s white supremacist plot that almost plunged the young democracy into civil war. “The Plot to Save South Africa” will be produced by Johannesburg-based production outfit Ochre Moving Pictures, which signed a deal with Netflix last year to adapt multiple books for the streaming service alongside Omotoso.

Thinus Ferreira Guest Contributor When the film biz jetset lands at O.R Tambo airport for this week’s 6th Joburg Film Festival they’d be amazed by a little-known story of how the airport’s namesake was the mastermind behind a plan to recruit ordinary British working-class volunteers to travel to South Africa and detonate pamphlet bombs in the 1970s during the height of Apartheid. The fascinating story has been made into a thrilling documentary by director Gordon Main, “London Recruits,” featuring interviews with those who went, interspersed with Super 8 archive footage and dramatic reenactments. It is the festival opener.

Christopher Vourlias Following on the heels of a successful post-pandemic reboot one year ago, the Joburg Film Festival kicks off its sixth edition on Feb. 27, with the glitzy capital of South Africa’s media and entertainment industry showcasing a selection of top talents from the host country and across the African continent.

Aimee Lou Wood Comedy ‘Daddy Issues’ Rounds Out Cast

They finished fifth on the Love Island All Stars final on Monday evening and now Anton Danyluk and Georgia Harrison are bidding fairwell to South Africa and heading back to the UK.

Love Island All Stars fans are convinced that they’ve spotted a hidden ‘clue’ that ‘proves’ Callum Jones is still in love with Molly Smith, after last night’s explosive final. After 36 days in the sun-soaked South African villa, the first ever All Stars series came to a close on Monday night (19 February) when Molly and her partner Tom Clare were crowned the winners and secured a prize of £50,000.

Strictly Come Dancing's Robin Windsor's final public photo shows the dancer smiling on a cruise ship just weeks before he sadly passed away.