by Thinus Ferreira
Canal+ and MultiChoice have teamed to film yet another co-production in South Africa, this time an action drama series called Spinners going inside the dangerous world of car spinning in Cape Town with the 8-episode series which will be on MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax.
In March, speaking as a panellist at kykNET's 10th Silwerskermfees film festival in Camps Bay, Allan Sperling, MultiChoice Group's executive head of physical production, hinted that "an Afrikaans co-production has been signed and we're going into production within the next few months".
"It is possible to do Afrikaans international co-productions. We're in partnership with Canal+ who are taking the French rights and the rest of the world will be up for sales and this is where we're looking to recoup and the producer also gets proceeds from that. So it is also possible for Afrikaans shows to become co-productions," he said a few months ago.
Production on Spinners, which is the show that Allan Sperling referenced, is produced by Empreinte Digitale and Natives at Large with Jaco Bouwer as director and Benjamin Hoffman as co-creator and showrunner.
Filming on Spinners started in the Mother City this week, with the story revolving around Ethan, a 17-year old driver working for a local gang who discovers car spinning in which he excels and where he puts his driving skills to use.
Under the shadow of a looming gang war and with his gang being run by gangster Damien with an iron fist, Ethan tries to support his younger brother while he is increasingly disgusted with his own life, and tries to use car spinning as his exit from gang life.
The cast of Spinners include Cantona James and Chelsea Thomas from the Cape Town based Afrikaans telenovela Arendsvlei on kykNET & Kie (DStv 145), as well as Brendon Daniels and Dillon Windvogel, with the series which will be in English, Afrikaans and Kaaps Afrikaans.
The hip hop star DJ Ready D is the Spinners music supervisor and responsible for composing the show's soundtrack.
Meanwhile post-production is still continuing on Blood Psalms from Jahmil X.T. Qubeka and Layla Swart Najaar's Yellowbone Entertainment, with the African fantasy drama series which is another MultiChoice and Canal+ co-production earmarked for Showmax.
