News

Lifetime: Television for (Christian) Women.

The female-focused cable channel has a new Saturday-night movies slate “centered on women facing unfathomable circumstances who use their faith to lead them through,” according to Lifetime. The four films on tap will star Chrissy Metz (This Is Us), Alexa PenaVega (Spy Kids), Kat Graham (The Vampire Diaries) and Paula Patton (Precious), respectively.

Faith in the Flames: The Nichole Jolly Story (July 19) is based on the true story of the devastating 2018 fire that ripped through Paradise, California; it stars Metz in the title role of hero nurse Jolly.

The following week (July 26) is PenaVega’s turn in Before Your Father Finds Us, the story of a woman who “must draw on her faith to hide her and her teen daughter from her violent ex-husband.” It’s a very Lifetime scenario.

On August 2, Graham’s adaptation of Terri Blackstock’s Christian suspense book Terri Blackstock’s If I Run premieres.

Vuelta Group’s international sales division, Playtime, has completed the full acquisition of sales house Film Constellation from Fabien Westerhoff, and integrated its operations with Global Screen, the German-based international sales outfit under Playtime. Together, these entities will form Global Constellation.

Global Constellation will be part of the Playtime Group, which includes sales companies Playtime, Film Boutique, and Be for Films.

Westerhoff takes an executive role as managing director of the theatrical film division bringing together the strengths of both companies with a strategic market focus on animation, family entertainment, and genre cinema.

Ulrike Schroder will be managing director of the TV division, heading the hub for international TV distribution within Vuelta.

Global Constellation will collaborate closely with Vuelta Germany, Vuelta’s German film distribution arm, born from the merger of Squareone and Telepool. This positions Global Constellation as the “go-to partner for German and international filmmakers seeking pan-European collaborations and international reach,...

Today, AMC Networks’ Acorn TV revealed the premiere date, trailer and photos for Season 2 of Recipes for Love and Murder, the South African culinary mystery series starring Maria Doyle Kennedy.

Hailed by critics as a “mix of human drama, gorgeous landscape, local color and mouthwatering cooking” (New York Times) with a “one-of-a-kind heroine” (Variety), Season 2 of the eight-episode Acorn TV original series debuts with a two-episode premiere on Monday, March 3 on Acorn TV, with new episodes releasing weekly.

When a massive fire engulfs the small town of Eden, a fateful chain of events is triggered and Tannie Maria (Doyle Kennedy), Jessie and Khaya get dragged into a multiple murder investigation that unearths the town’s darkest secrets.

Joining Doyle Kennedy, Kgoroge and Fisher in Season 2 are Wynand Ferreira, who portrays Jaco, Regardt’s intense younger brother, and Gerard Rudolph as Ricus, a trained psychologist turned mechanic.

Also on board is Hlubi Mboya as Jackie Baloyi,...

South African production house Nthibah Pictures isn’t afraid to take risks. The company, which was established in 2018, is coming off the back of fully-financing upcoming big-budget, high-octane genre title Boy Kills World, which opens in the U.S. today (April 26) across nearly 2,500 screens. The film, which is being released by Lionsgate’s sister label Roadside Attractions, stars Bill Skarsgård and is produced with Sam Raimi and is, says Nthibah Pictures’ chairman Wayne Fitzjohn and CEO Simon Swart, one of the “biggest-budgeted” titles to come out of South Africa.

“Not only is it the biggest budget from a South African production company by some margin, but also we’ve doubled down on the P&a,” says Fitzjohn.

“We raised the P&a [for the release] as well,” says Swart of the Moritz Mohr-directed project, which was shot entirely in South Africa. The film centers on Skarsgård’s Boy, who vows revenge after his...

US and South Africa-based outfit Nthibah Pictures, whose genre film Boy Kills World goes out on 2,400 screens in the US this Friday (April 26), has revealed its next feature project, Project Legion, to be directed by Jozua Malherbe.

It is the first since parent company Talent10 Holdings Investment Group confirmed a multi-million dollar investment into Nthibah from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (Idc).

Wayne Fitzjohn, chairman of Nthibah Pictures and founder and CEO of Talent10 Holdings, said the Idc funds will go towards significantly expanding Nthibah’s content slate.

Project Legion (working title), the first feature fully financed and produced under the new investment,...

Exclusive: Tubi has landed U.S. and Canadian rights to South African limited series Devil’s Peak about a Detective tracking down a vigilante killer in Cape Town.

Penned by Moon Knight scribe Matthew Orton, the big-budget five-episode thriller is based on a hit 2004 novel by Deon Meyer and is produced by Happy Valley maker Lookout Point and Expanded Media Productions in association with MultiChoice Studios and BBC Studios. It launched last year locally on South Africa’s M-Net and BBC Studios sells around the world.

Starring Hilton Pelser, the series follows Detective Benny Griessel, who is tasked with tracking down a vigilante killer whose crimes are capturing the imagination of the city. As he gets closer to his mark, Griessel finds himself drawn into a dark and dangerous world where nothing is what it seems.

Fox-owned Tubi has landed U.S. and Canadian rights from next week.

“Devil’s Peak...

Gentleman Jack producer Lookout Point and Expanded Media Productions are adapting Deon Meyer’s bestseller Devil’s Peak into a five-part series for M-Net.

Set in Cape Town, the thriller is being adapted by Moon Knight writer Matthew Orton and follows talented but broken Detective Benny Griessel, who is tasked with tracking down a righteous vigilante killer whose crimes are capturing the imagination of the city. Benny and grieving father Thobela are brought into the orbit of trapped mother Christine, who is willing to do anything to achieve a better life for herself and her daughter, and the fates of these three characters become inextricably linked as the series builds to its explosive climax.

Series stars Hilton Pelser, Sisanda Henna and Tarryn Wyngaard and is being directed by Jozua Malherbe. Orton is adapting with Amy Jephta, who is also associate producer.