South Africa’s Known Associates, the fast-growing parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (Kae) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, is launching into unscripted programming, Variety can reveal.
The company has acquired a 60% stake in Zero Gravity, a production outfit founded in 2017 by former Endemol Shine Africa and Trace Studios CEO Sivan Pillay, and will team up with South African media giant Primedia to “relaunch multiple new high-end unscripted formats,” according to Pillay. Though specific titles covered by that agreement have not been finalized, Primedia’s catalog includes hit series “The Masked Singer,” “Deal or No Deal” and “Ready Steady Cook.”
“For us, it’s a natural progression,” said Known Associates chairperson Joel Phiri at the Joburg Film Festival. “We’re bringing our production expertise, and it’s keeping in line with our acquiring [production services giant] Moonlighting [in 2022]. It’s linking with our servicing facilities and growing that side of the business.”
The...
The company has acquired a 60% stake in Zero Gravity, a production outfit founded in 2017 by former Endemol Shine Africa and Trace Studios CEO Sivan Pillay, and will team up with South African media giant Primedia to “relaunch multiple new high-end unscripted formats,” according to Pillay. Though specific titles covered by that agreement have not been finalized, Primedia’s catalog includes hit series “The Masked Singer,” “Deal or No Deal” and “Ready Steady Cook.”
“For us, it’s a natural progression,” said Known Associates chairperson Joel Phiri at the Joburg Film Festival. “We’re bringing our production expertise, and it’s keeping in line with our acquiring [production services giant] Moonlighting [in 2022]. It’s linking with our servicing facilities and growing that side of the business.”
The...
- 3/1/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Taiye Selasi, who wrote the book Ghana Must Go and was mentored by Toni Morrison, is developing a new, Lagos-set comedy drama for the global marketplace.
Selasi is writing Victoria Island and has teamed up with Severance and Escape At Dannemora exec producer Nicholas Weinstock, American Gods producer Fremantle and African producer Known Associates Entertainment on the project.
The hour-long project follows the adventures of a Nigerian-American woman who returns to Lagos, newly married to an oil billionaire, and launches an event planning company with the help of her friends in the home of the world’s most spectacular events.
Selasi will write and exec produce the series through her production company Cocoa Content, which she founded in 2019 with media investor Jerôme Levy. She is known for her Ted Talk Don’t Ask Where I’m From, Ask Where I’m a Local.
Weinstock will exec produce through his Invention Studios shingle,...
Selasi is writing Victoria Island and has teamed up with Severance and Escape At Dannemora exec producer Nicholas Weinstock, American Gods producer Fremantle and African producer Known Associates Entertainment on the project.
The hour-long project follows the adventures of a Nigerian-American woman who returns to Lagos, newly married to an oil billionaire, and launches an event planning company with the help of her friends in the home of the world’s most spectacular events.
Selasi will write and exec produce the series through her production company Cocoa Content, which she founded in 2019 with media investor Jerôme Levy. She is known for her Ted Talk Don’t Ask Where I’m From, Ask Where I’m a Local.
Weinstock will exec produce through his Invention Studios shingle,...
- 10/11/2023
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
New York Times bestselling author turned TV creator Taiye Selasi captivated a packed theater at the Joburg Film Festival this week, acknowledging that the deck is stacked against Black female creators in Hollywood, but insisting that the power of African women remained in their ability to overcome any obstacle in bringing their stories to the screen. “There is nothing that can stop, has ever stopped, or will ever, ever stop an African woman,” she declared to a rapt audience.
Selasi spoke in front of a full house at Johannesburg’s Theater on the Square on Friday as part of a day-long celebration of African women in film. During a rousing session in which she shared lessons from her experience at the helm of Cocoa Content, the TV production company she founded in 2019, Selasi weighed in on the growing demand for African talent in Hollywood while also unpacking the “hype” about...
Selasi spoke in front of a full house at Johannesburg’s Theater on the Square on Friday as part of a day-long celebration of African women in film. During a rousing session in which she shared lessons from her experience at the helm of Cocoa Content, the TV production company she founded in 2019, Selasi weighed in on the growing demand for African talent in Hollywood while also unpacking the “hype” about...
- 2/5/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The inaugural Jbx Content Market kicks off Feb. 1 in Johannesburg with a program focused on emerging trends in the African screen industries, as the new event looks to establish a foothold on a continent that has seen both its production and its ambitions steadily rise amid continued global demand for content.
Running parallel to the 5th edition of the Joburg Film Festival, which takes place Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, the two-day showcase will host a series of events with a range of South African, African and international guests, as well as a market area where exhibitors can present both finished content and projects looking for partners.
The goal, said Joburg Film Festival executive director Timothy Mangwedi, is to create “a new voice and a new platform for African filmmakers,” while offering international executives access to “fresh talent” that has its eyes set on the global market.
“It’s about glocalized content. It...
Running parallel to the 5th edition of the Joburg Film Festival, which takes place Jan. 31 – Feb. 5, the two-day showcase will host a series of events with a range of South African, African and international guests, as well as a market area where exhibitors can present both finished content and projects looking for partners.
The goal, said Joburg Film Festival executive director Timothy Mangwedi, is to create “a new voice and a new platform for African filmmakers,” while offering international executives access to “fresh talent” that has its eyes set on the global market.
“It’s about glocalized content. It...
- 1/31/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Known Associates Entertainment, the production company behind the South African adaptation of the Colombian telenovela that inspired “Ugly Betty,” is planning to break ground on a Hollywood-style film studio outside Johannesburg that will boost capacity in one of the world’s hottest shooting locations.
Cradle Film Studios will be built across the road from the Cradle of Humankind, a sprawling archaeological site where traces of some of the earliest humans were discovered.
Comprising state-of-the-art studios and backlots, a data center, an innovation hub, and a housing development, the complex will be located 30 miles from Johannesburg and just 10 minutes from an international airport. It will also include a theme park that takes its inspiration from the world-renowned fossil site.
The project’s backers say the studios will help position South Africa’s commercial capital and the surrounding Gauteng province as a world-class destination for both local filmmakers and foreign productions.
“We...
Cradle Film Studios will be built across the road from the Cradle of Humankind, a sprawling archaeological site where traces of some of the earliest humans were discovered.
Comprising state-of-the-art studios and backlots, a data center, an innovation hub, and a housing development, the complex will be located 30 miles from Johannesburg and just 10 minutes from an international airport. It will also include a theme park that takes its inspiration from the world-renowned fossil site.
The project’s backers say the studios will help position South Africa’s commercial capital and the surrounding Gauteng province as a world-class destination for both local filmmakers and foreign productions.
“We...
- 2/14/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
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