NEWS / 03
www.thecallsheet.co.za
NOVEL ADAPTATION
FILMS IN THE CAPE
Redeeming Love, a big screen adaptation of Francine Rivers’ best-selling novel, has been announced as a theatrical release nationwide for spring 2021.
P
rincipal photography completed in March, where production transformed Cape Town, South Africa into California and Boston during the Gold Rush Era of the 1850’s. The film is based on the novel Redeeming Love, which has remained on multiple fiction best-seller lists for over 15 years, sold over three million copies, and has been published
in more than 30 languages. Directed by D.J. Caruso (xXx: Return Of Xander Cage, Disturbia), the film boasts an ensemble cast of Abigail Cowen (Sabrina), Tom Lewis (Gentleman Jack), Logan Marshall Green (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Famke Janssen (X-Men), Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries) and Eric Dane (Grey’s Anatomy). “While many are victims
of horrible circumstances that will haunt them forever, some characters are able to overcome the pain, the sorrow and the brutality to discover how remarkable they truly are,” says Caruso. Redeeming Love is produced by Cindy Bond (Mission Pictures International), Simon Swart and Wayne Fitzjohn (Nthibah Pictures), and Michael Scott,
David A.R. White and Brittany Yost for Pure Flix Entertainment, with exec producers Francine Rivers and Roma Downey (LightWorkers) attached. The film will mark the second collaboration in two years between Cindy Bond and Simon Swart, who produced the immensely successful inspirational film, I Can Only Imagine.
SA PROJECT WINS AT
MIPTV ONLINE+ Mother City, a gritty 43-minute drama series presented at MIPTV Online+ in April, won the In Development Drama Series Pitch this year.
T
he 8 x 43 minute drama series was pitched during MIPTV’s first ever virtual summit in April. The pitch was presented by Ernest Napoleon of Enigma Pictures, with Greig Buckle’s Local Motion Pitcures attached as the company producing the series in SA, and Moonrise Pictures attached as partners. Mother City tells the story of Charlie Moloi, who
MIPTV, the annual global TV market, took place online this year © Shutterstock
believed he receive his big break when he was picked to
be part of an elite group of young officers selected to
represent the SA Police’s Violent Crimes division at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. But when he returns as the department’s shining star to the newly established Murder Forensics Division, Charlie is immediately stymied by bizarre crimes that defy even the best forensic detection – crimes of a supernatural nature. The series is currently in search of broadcasters, distributors and co-producers.
