International Emmy Award-nominated South African production company Worlds and Paris-based Paradoxal have signed an exclusive rights deal with South African best-selling author Deon Meyer to develop two of his most famous works as premium TV series, the companies announced on the eve of Seriesmania.
Meyer is serving as an executive producer on both projects.
Umzingeri (“The Hunter”) is an ambitious, contemporary, multi-territorial spy thriller featuring KGB and Stasi-trained assassin Tobela “Tiny” Mpaiferi, whose character spans four of Meyer’s novels. Now living under a false identity in Bordeaux, he has forgotten his past – or so he believes.
Set in Bordeaux, Bilbao, the Benelux, Berlin and southern Africa, the series is designed as a returnable, character-driven action thriller with an international scope. Noah Stallman (Fauda, Our Boys) has been tapped as lead writer and showrunner, collaborating with South African novelist and journalist Fred Khumalo.
“Dead at Daybreak,” meanwhile, is the film adaptation of Meyer’s groundbreaking novel, which won the French National Police Award. This noir series is set in Cape Town in 1996, at the intersection of old and new South Africa, and follows Zatopek van Heerden, a former police officer turned private investigator. This is a man who is trying to rebuild himself in a country that is going through similar things.
Tertius Kapp (Gaia) joins as head writer and Jaco Bower (Spinners) as director, bringing together two of South Africa’s hottest talents.
Widely regarded as the king of South African crime fiction, Meyer’s work has been translated into 28 languages in over 40 countries. The Netflix version of his hit spy thriller Heart of the Hunter made history as the first African film in the streamer’s top 10 English-language films worldwide.
Describing the “special” partnership that brings two of his beloved characters to the screen, Meyer said he was “proud and thrilled to be a part of this extraordinary project.”
“Tobela and Zatopek are two characters that I love to create and develop,” he said. “Both have played a huge role in establishing me internationally, so they deserve a special team of creative individuals to take them on the next chapter of their journey.”
“I’m honored to be working on such a relevant and ambitious TV adaptation,” said Stallman, known for his hit series Fauda and Our Boys, adding that The Hunter has a “message for our time.”
“Although I come from a completely different part of the world, I was immediately drawn to Deon Meyer’s worldview in which brave men and women fight for equality and justice and then must adapt and evolve in a post-truth world full of moral gray areas and impossible choices,” said Stallman. “Tiny’s character embodies this tension. He is a man of moral clarity, shaped by a cause that no longer exists, and although he is exhausted and disillusioned, he never backs down from the fight.”
The two series are the latest collaboration between Both Worlds and Paradoxal, who have been co-developing and co-financing partners since 2019, partnering on Acorn TV’s cozy crime series Recipe for Love and Murder and Prime Video’s The Morning After, which recently won four awards, including Best TV Comedy at the South African Film and Television Awards.
Thierry Casso, executive producer of Cape Town-based Both Worlds, said Meyer’s work “sits at the intersection of the deeply local and the truly universal” and places it “exactly where the best television is.”
“In Umzingeri (The Hunter), we have characters and a world that stands out on its own alongside what is currently being produced in Europe and the United States,” Kasuto said. “‘Dead at Daybreak’ is a different proposition, intimate and period-based, rooted in Cape Town, but driven by the same unstoppable protagonists. With Noah and Fred on one side and Tertius and Jaco on the other, the creative foundation couldn’t be stronger.”
Remy Jacquelin, Executive Producer of Paradoxal, said: “From a French and European perspective, the timing couldn’t be better. The appetite for premium series with strong author voice and international scope is real and growing. The two projects have a South African-French co-production structure at their core and are underpinned by one of the world’s most distinctive literary voices. It’s a proposition that resonates around the world, and we’re proud to offer them both to series enthusiasts.
