Mandela miniseries finds SA home

South Africa’s free-to-air network e.tv has picked up a forthcoming miniseries starring Laurence Fishburne that charts the life of former president Nelson Mandela.

Laurence Fishburne

Spanning more than 70 years, Madiba follows Mandela’s journey from his childhood to becoming the leader of the fight for racial equality and democracy in South Africa and his election as president in 1994.

Fishburne plays the iconic statesmen in the six-hour miniseries, which was commissioned by BET in the US and is due to air in 2017.

Mark Rosin, group chief operating officer at eTV parent eMedia Investments, told C21’s sister publication Drama Quarterly: “We picked up the series not only for our channel but for the country. It presents to us a legacy opportunity to hold rights in relation to a project that will be of historical, educational and entertainment significance.

“We are hopeful that while the critical acclaim for the series is expected, we are able to generate enormous popular acclaim and demand and also some commercial success for the project in our territory too.”

Madiba is produced by Toronto-based Blue Ice Pictures and South Africa’s Out of Africa Entertainment, in association with the UK’s Left Bank Pictures and Cinema Gypsy Productions. It is distributed by Dynamic Television.

The scripts are based on two books written by Mandela: Conversations with Myself and Nelson Mandela by Himself.

Blue Ice Pictures president Lance Samuels executive produces alongside Mandela’s grandson Kweku Mandela, of Out of Africa, and Daniel Iron, Neil Tabatznik, Steven Silver, Andy Harries and Loretha Jones. The director is Kevin Hooks.