Creative storytelling company KOJO has secured a multi-million dollar investment deal with US-based Main Street Films for an upcoming feature film titled ONE.
ONE is a co-production between KOJO and South Australian writer/director Murali K Thalluri from M2E, with South African company Enigma Pictures as the co-producer. It is the first feature film to be produced under the joint Australian/South African coproduction treaty.
This will be KOJO’s seventh film in a producing role and the 29th film delivered by its postproduction department.
With casting negotiations well advanced and production scheduled to commence later this year, producers expect to deliver ONE in the first half of 2014. It will be filmed in various locations across South Africa including Capetown, Johannesburg and Soweto, with all post-production and visual effects to be completed in KOJO’s Adelaide studios.
ONE is set several decades into the future in a world decimated by a deadly contagious virus, for which there is no known cure. It’s a racially-fuelled post-apocalyptic adventure as seen through the eyes of a 26 year-old girl. She is the hope of her world, yet holds fundamental doubts about whether she can live up to this daunting task.
KOJO Founding Partner Kent Smith – who, along with the film’s writer/director Murali Thalluri, secured the investment in Cannes this year – said the deal with Main Street Films was an exciting and significant achievement.
“To secure international finance at this sort of level, in such a tough international marketplace, is exciting. It speaks volumes for KOJO’s reputation as a deliverer of high quality films around the world and also for Murali’s ability to inspire and motivate investors with his films,” Mr Smith said.
“We expect this to be the first in a series of films produced and funded by the ONE team so we’re very optimistic that this deal has the potential to deliver much more than one coproduction.”
Mr Smith said South Africa was very pleased to hear about the co-production and had thrown its support behind the film.
“ONE will be the first film for South Africa under the official co-production treaty between the two countries since the agreement was signed in 2010, so there was a certain sense of relief from the South Africans when our project was presented to them in Cannes,” he said.
KOJO Chief Executive Officer Mr Dale Roberts said KOJO was thrilled to be collaborating with Main Street Films and Murali on such a great project.
“This is our first time working with Main Street Films and we couldn’t be more excited,” Mr Roberts said.
“Storytelling and film-making have been a core part of KOJO’s business for over twenty years, so it’s incredibly rewarding to see our alliances continuing to expand in this way and to be producing and delivering an international co-production of this size.
“This project has certainly added significantly to our growing portfolio of work on local and international films and positions us well for further expansion with our international partners. We look forward to working with both the team at Main Street Films and Murali on this upcoming project.”
Main Street Owner Craig Chang said: “The prospect of working with a world-class team of Murali Thalluri and KOJO is very exciting for us at Main Street. We believe we have something very special in ONE that will excite worldwide audiences.”