African streaming service Showmax has announced two new international co-productions: Jahmil XT Qubeka and Layla Swart’s epic African mythology series Blood Psalms, with Canal+ International, and the Megan Fox action movie Rogue.
This continues a move towards co-productions from Showmax’s parent company, MultiChoice, which partnered with HBO on last year’s Trackers, an adaptation of the bestselling Deon Meyer novel, which outperformed Game of Thrones in South Africa.
“This is a conscious move on our part to ramp up investment in African content,” says Yolisa Phahle, CEO of General Entertainment for MultiChoice. “We’re already seeing a virtuous cycle in action with more spend on local production yielding higher and higher quality output, which in turn has led to international co-investment and distribution. This is just the start of bringing the Africa we know and love to the rest of the world.”
Rogue, premiering 11 September 2020 on BoxOffice by DStv
In Rogue, Teen Choice winner and People’s Choice nominee Megan Fox (Transformers) stars as Samantha O’Hara, who leads a team of mercenaries on a mission to rescue a group of kidnapped schoolgirls. When their plan goes south, the mercenaries find themselves out of ammo and lost in the bush, having to defend themselves against both the kidnappers and an angry lion.
MJ Basset (Power, Strike Back, Ash vs Evil Dead) directs the action-adventure film, which also stars BAFTA Rising Star winner Adam Deacon (Casualty), Philip Winchester (Strike Back, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit), and South African stars Jessica Sutton (Motherland: Fort Salem, The Kissing Booth), Brandon Auret (District 9, Elysium, Still Breathing), Sisanda Henna (Trackers, Griekwastad), Kenneth Fok (Warrior) and Greg Kriek (Black Mirror), one of South Africa’s busiest actors, with over 50 international screen credits to his name.
Rogue will premiere on BoxOffice by DStv on 11 September 2020, the first of a number of films opting to skip cinemas given the pandemic and launch first and exclusively on the video on demand platform instead.
The SA-UK film is a co-production between MultiChoice, Capstone and Mannequin, with Lionsgate Home Entertainment handling distribution in North America.
Watch the trailer below:
https://youtu.be/MUXMaq40v1M
