The much-anticipated heist film \u2018The Blue Mauritius\u2019 is back on track with its new producing partner Benaroya Pictures, the company behind such hit films as Lawless, The Words, Margin Call, and Queen of the Desert with Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame.<\/p>\n
The film is also getting a new cast member by way of Anthony Mackie, the American superstar who burst onto the scene with his brilliant performance in The Hurt Locker, directed by the incomparable Kathryn Bigelow. We saw the two pair up again this year on her critically acclaimed film Detroit.<\/p>\n
However, most audiences around the world know Mackie from his portrayal of Falcon in the Marvel Studios franchise films Captain America and Avengers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so pleased to be working with Michael Benaroya and his prestigious company Benaroya Pictures on The Blue Mauritius, a project that\u2019s been a labor of love. Michael is super smart and well connected in Hollywood and after four years of false starts I can finally feel secure we\u2019re going to get this done,\u201d said executive producer and CEO of D Street Media Group Dexter Davis. \u201cAnthony Mackie who I consider a real movie star brings such a fresh perspective to the cast and the character, he\u2019s an incredibly talented, versatile actor who truly takes the project to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Mauritius is the first film that will test D Street\u2019s mandate to create a \u201cstar system\u201d in South Africa. The producers cast South African actors Deon Lotz, Pearl Thusi and Nicola Breytenbach in principal roles alongside other international stars such as John Rhys-Davies, Gerard Depardieu, Thomas Kretschmann and now of course Anthony Mackie. With almost guaranteed U.S. and international distribution, D Street is betting on its South African talent becoming more recognizable to worldwide audiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe we can achieve what 12 Years a Slave<\/a> did for Lupita Nyong\u2019o. Had it not been for her very famous co-stars Michael Fassbender, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Brad Pitt, who\u2019s fame brought in audiences from all over the world, we may not know who Lupita Nyong\u2019o is today,\u201d said D Street\u2019s president Ernest Napoleon. \u201cWhat we\u2019re proposing is not rocket science, one of the key elements to creating a star system is exposure. The more we create content like The Blue Mauritius with South African actors in prominent roles, the better our chances are to produce South African films that can be sold worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n D Street isn\u2019t stopping with The Blue Mauritius, the company is teaming up with South African producer Grieg Buckle and his Enigma Pictures to produce the faith-based basketball film Ballin: On the Other Side of the World.<\/p>\n The story is about a young South African boy whose talent in basketball is discovered by an American priest during missionary work in Cape Town.<\/p>\n The film is yet another example of how D Street is developing content with South African storylines, while utilizing American and African talent in leading roles. The company\u2019s relationship to Hollywood is imperative to the success of the model.<\/p>\n D Street Releasing, the distribution arm of D Street Media Group has made clear of its intentions to be the go to distributor to handle South African and African films that can compete with other English and foreign language films in America, and is actively looking for a content partner in South Africa to help grow that business.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way we see growth happening in the South African film industry is from the outside in. Indeed, creating a star system will be a huge part of that, but more importantly we think utilizing America\u2019s more than 40,000 screens as a home for South African films is strategic and central to the plan. If France can generate an almost $100MM annual box-office take in America, there\u2019s no reason why South African films can\u2019t do at least half that business,\u201d said Davis. \u201cSouth Africa has to think bigger about being a global player in film and cannot depend on its own screens to build its industry. The country has the talent and the knowhow. Hopefully it has the will to be bold as it has in other industries. Obviously, D Street wants to be a big part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The much-anticipated heist film \u2018The Blue Mauritius\u2019 is back on track with its new producing partner Benaroya Pictures, the company behind such hit films as Lawless, The Words, Margin Call, and Queen of the Desert with Nicole Kidman, James Franco and Robert Pattinson of Twilight fame. The film is also getting a new cast member… Continue reading The Blue Mauritius Takes On New Talent & D Street Gets Bullish On South Africa<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}