Local novelist Deon Meyer thrills with TV series

Cape Town - The first TV series based on a novel by prize-winning Cape Town crime writer Deon Meyer is set to premiere later this year.

Cape Town, a six-part mini-series directed by Peter Ladkani and filmed in the Mother City, has been adapted from Meyer’s 1996 crime thriller Dead Before Dying. It stars Norwegian actor Trond Espen Seim as hard-bitten SAPS detective Mat Joubert and US actor Boris Kodjoe as his partner Sanctus “Sanct” Snook.

According to Annette Reeker, spokeswoman for production company all-in-production GmbH, filming is complete and the series is in post-production.

“We are in negotiations with broadcasters in various countries,” said Reeker, who wrote the screenplay together with Mark Needham.

In Cape Town, Joubert and Snook start investigating a series of mystifying murders. In every case, the murder weapon is a Mauser pistol.

“Apart from the Mauser murders, investigations also focus on the dead bodies of young European models.

“The girls suffered severe sexual abuse before they were disposed of. There seems to be an international clientele in Cape Town with a special sexual request for ‘fresh products’ from Europe.”

Joubert, meanwhile, is confronted by a new SAPS colonel who gives him an ultimatum to “shape up or ship out”. He is also haunted by memories of his murdered wife Lara Joubert, also a Hawks officer, who died during an undercover operation against international drug traffickers.

Weekend Argus