Category Archives: TV

by

Lauren Beukes writes Wonder Woman!

Lauren Beukes

You know how you run a blog and you start getting worried that its starting to look like you are running a shrine to a specific author? No? Well that’s how its looking this week with South African author Lauren Beukes.

So a few days ago I was gushing about her announcement that her book Broken Monsters will be now a drama show on US TV. Very quickly after that City Press did a story about DC comics releasing a Wonder Woman story set in Africa in which the female superhero saves her male Justice League team-mates, Superman and Batman, from the claws of her nemesis, Cheetah.

Turns out the story was written by the aforementioned Lauren Beukes. As I read the story and marvelled about the ability of the author to write stuff that TV people love and now even Hollywood royalty. Damn. You can read a very nice EXCLUSIVE interview with the Beukes telling us about how important Wonder Woman is to her on Cradle Magazine. Good stuff.

by

Lauren Beukes novel Broken Monsters to be a TV drama

Lauren Beukes

Lauren Beukes came back from the US back to Mzansi and posted the following tweet that was favourited and retweeted like crazy;

Turns out the South African authors book Broken Monsters while terrifying readers with its chillingness has been acquired by Endemol Studios’ scripted pod Additional Dialogue to develop it as a drama series. The novel follows Detective Gabriella Versado, also the single mom of a 15-year-old daughter, as she tracks a murderer who mutilates victims in bizarre and alarming ways. Her investigation winds through present-day Detroit — from police precincts to the underground art scene to the Internet-driven secret lives of teenage girls. A teenager, a homeless man and an upstart journalist also play a role in the hunt for the disturbing and possibly otherworldly serial killer.

The enthusiasm was picked up by Bookriot who tried to imagine who would be the ideal cast members for the series. They included Rosario Dawson as Detective Gabriella Versado, Amandla Sternberg as Layla, Jacqueline Emerson as Cass, Devon Sawa as Jonno, Keith David as Thomas “TK” Keen and Vincent D’Onofrio as Clayton.
This is not the first time for a Beukes book to be picked up by a studio as her previous book The Shining Girls was picked up by Leonardo Dicaprio TV production company in 2013.
These are the returns that make us believe that her decision to write novels based in US cities were the best thing to happen to the South Africans writing career. Kudos.

by

Taiye Selasi to judge revolutionary new reality show

Taiye Selasi

The Italians have a new reality show called The Masterpiece. The show is a play on the shows that we are all familiar with like Big Brother. In this version of the show, aspiring authors vie at literary challenges until one contestant wins a major book deal.
The new show has three judges, one of whom is a writer that follows of African literature will be familiar with Ghanaian/Nigerian Taiye Selasi. Speaking to the New York Times about the new show, Selasi explains that she was initially apprehensive to take part in the new show.

She also explains that; “The Masterpiece won’t necessarily identify the best new author in Italy. It seeks only the best of those who dare participate. And a little daring is required to succeed in writing.”

Should we be talking to our TV stations, SABC, KBC, ZTV, UBS, NBC, GBC et al to have our own writers fight for a book deal? We have been seeing a debate on the interwebs about who would be the possible contestants from Africa and its been fun.

by

Meet African writers on the Palm Print’s The Living Room

Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond is very cool on her video

Getting to read Africans is getting easier and easier with spaces like Amazon and more publishers than ever getting into the fiction space in the recent past. Whilst it is relatively easy to pick up the book and read the story from the author the author is usually unseen like in other art forms like music and film. Opportunities for people who love the written word to see their prose heros aren’t that many not just in African literature but generally. Apart from a few shows dedicated to featuring writers like KTN did a few months ago and discontinued the prose gods of this day and age have to compete with the rest of the arts for the space to promote their product.

This is why I am loving a YouTube channel that I have just discovered called The Palm Print where you get to meet African writers like Teju Cole, Chinelo Okparanta and Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond. Almost in the flesh. As in you see them as real human beings that talk and cough and rub their noses nervously and everything. They give their opinions about their work and other topics of interest. In one video Teju Cole, is at a book club where people who have read his Open City book get to ask him questions about it. In another Nana Ekua talks about rediscovering Ghana the country she calls home and her book Powder Necklace as well as being in the Africa39 list. In yet another one with Kelechi Okere (a doppelganger for Nganga Mbugua) hosts Chinelo Okparanta on her book Happiness Like Water and the voiceless women. All very cool.

The website of the Palm Print project describes itself as a platform for exploring the rich and myriad cultures of Africa through our story as told in literature, documentaries, photography and other art forms. Starting with literature (can I get an amen?!) they are trying to build a community of writers, both on and offline, working together to share and create the stories that define us as a continent. So I recommend that you go into The Living Room series where invited guests exchange thoughts and views on African literature. You might just see your favourite writer or meet a new one.