EXCLUSIVE: Bestselling South African scribe Deon Meyer is turning his Last Of Us-esque thriller Fever into a TV series with Federation MEAC.
The adaptation, which doesn’t yet have a buyer, is part of a three-project deal struck between Meyer’s Scenne23 and the Federation Studios label, with Meyer set to pen the series himself.
Fever follows Nico Storm and his father Willem, who are the few in South Africa to have survived a devastating virus that wiped out more than 90% of the world’s population. Willem, a thinker and a leader, has a vision for a new community rebuilt from the ruins of the old world, and so Amanzi is formed with a disparate group of survivors. Killing Eve producer Sid Gentle optioned the novel five years ago but that option has run down.
Joachim Landau, who runs Federation MEAC, which develops projects mainly in the Middle East, Africa and Caribbean, labeled Fever a cross between HBO smash The Last of Us and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road.
“We know because of the success of The Last of Us that there is this core audience who like these ‘world after world’ type shows,” he told Deadline. “We want to bring this audience a new perspective, a fresh eye on the same idea. We have the door open wide but will be glued to the original material.”
Landau branded Meyer – the bestselling thriller scribe whose works have been translated into 28 languages – a “really big deal, super smart and super clever, with books made for TV.” Two more TV adaptations will follow Fever, although the titles are not yet confirmed.
In a similar vein to Federation MEAC‘s Canal+/Showmax hit Spinners, Landau said the show will be cast with “international appeal,” bringing in actors from the U.S., UK, France or Africa.
Counting Federation co-founder Lionel Uzan as a board member, Federation MEAC launched nearly two years ago with 15 projects in development. Having regularly hit the Canal+ top 10, the success of Spinners, a Deadline Global Breakout that was described by its creators as Fast & Furious meets Top Boy, has given buyers and fellow co-producers confidence in the label, Landau said.
“A lot of people at the start were sceptical but now when you go to a market or speak to streamers or broadcasters in other countries people are super open-minded and say, ‘Wow did you make Spinners? Maybe we can adapt something else,” he added. “With the [political] turmoil [in France] we were asking ourselves what would happen with Spinners but demand from 25-35 year olds in particular shows that what they are reading, listening to or watching in France remains super open.”
‘A Girl To Marry’
With this in mind, Landau revealed Federation MEAC is partnering with Gaumont on a TV comedy series about dual heritage couples in France.
Gaumont’s Clémentine Vaudaux is co-producing A Girl to Marry, which is based on writer Lise Barembaum’s own experience of marrying into a Black family, and Landau said it was “one of the funniest pitches” he’d ever received.
This one, Landau said, is “Fleabag meets Girls.” “The message we can express through this show is so important, especially in France,” he added. “This is not just a woman’s point of view but a modern French woman’s point of view and is about how to interpret love when what you feel is right for you but in an ultra cultural space.”
Refusing to tie his mast to a particular genre, Federation MEAC is also working on an animated documentary series akin to Waltz with Bashir about the Harlem Hellfighters, the first African American battalion to fight on European soil, in France, during the First World War, which will see Landau re-team with his Spinners co-creator Benjamin Hoffman alongside U.S. producer Vic Bulluck (Judge Mathis) and France’s La Chouette Compagnie.
Talks with big name stars in the U.S. and France for voiceover roles are advanced, Landau said, describing the series as a “love letter to the friendship between France and the U.S., especially African Americans.”
Landau has had a busy time of it of late but he said launching Federation MEAC just prior to the dual U.S. strikes and global recession has been “very challenging.”
“When I started the company I didn’t realize that the streaming world was about to decline,” he added. “A lot of the streamers’ heads of international at the time were keen to receive these kinds of pitches but then month after month we received bad news about them cutting budget and going local. Lots of doors shut for economical reasons but not all doors shut and some newcomers are maybe more open minded.”
He paid tribute to French major Federation and its bosses, who provide experience plus distribution.