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Eureka Productions bosses Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin have created a new company that’s got a deal in place with Fremantle, the production giant that owns their previous biz, Eureka Productions.

Fremantle, which has a majority stake in The Mole maker Eureka Productions, has struck a three-year deal with Culvenor and Franklin’s new creative venture, Eureka Studios. Though both companies will use the Eureka brand, only Eureka Productions sits inside the Fremantle fold as Eureka Studios is not owned by the Rtl-backed producer and distributor.

Rikkie Proost is being promoted from Chief Creative Officer to CEO of Eureka Productions following the move. However, Culvenor and Franklin will “remain actively involved in current productions and closely associated with the Eureka Productions slate”.

Eureka Studios launches with a three-year deal with Fremantle. The company will devise and develop new content that Fremantle and its subsidiary producers, including Eureka Productions,...

“White Lies,” a murder mystery series starring Natalie Dormer, has been acquired by Sundance Now for North America.

A collaboration between production company Quizzical Pictures and Pan-African broadcaster M-Net in partnership with Fremantle, “White Lies” is set in the wealthy Bishopscourt neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa. Dormer (“Penny Dreadful: City of Angels”) stars as an investigative journalist called Edie Hansen alongside Brendon Daniels (“Four Corners”), who plays detective Forty Bell.

“Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, Edie’s world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime,” reads the logline. “As Edie investigates, she finds herself at loggerheads with veteran detective Forty Bell, and grapples with the crumbling local police force, a corrupt political system and the secretive world of extreme Cape wealth.”

The eight-part series is written by Darrel Bristow-Bovey with John Trengove (“The Wound”) as lead director,...

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is leading a thriller for South African network M-Net.

Filming will commence next month on White Lies, which will star Dormer alongside Brendon Daniels (Four Corners) as investigative journalist Edie Hansen and detective Forty Bell respectively. Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, Hansen gets caught up in the ugly underbelly that lies beneath the picturesque beauty of the city, dragging her back to a turbulent past. Following her estranged brother’s murder in his luxury home, her world plunges deeper into chaos when her brother’s teenage children become prime suspects for the crime, as she finds herself at loggerheads with Bell.

Having previously combined on International Emmy Award-nominated M-Net drama Reyka, South African indie Quizzical Pictures is producing with Fremantle.

Dormer is a great get. She is best known for her role as Margaery Tyrell in Game of Thrones and...

Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games star Natalie Dormer is set to lead the cast of White Lies, a South African crime thriller from M-Net, Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle.

The Hollywood Reporter can reveal that the British actress — who became a fan favorite for playing Margaery Tyrell across 26 episodes of Game of Thrones — is now in Cape Town, where shooting is due to start on March 6. Dormer also had major roles in Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Tudors, and moved into producing and writer with 2018 thriller In Darkness.

Joining Dormer is award-winning South African actor Brendon Daniels, whose credits include the acclaimed film Four Corners, Skemerdans and Trackers, another M-Net international co-production.

Created by Sean Steinberg and written by award-winning scriptwriter Darrel Bristow-Bovey, White Lies is described as an “urgent exploration of race and privilege, inequality and identity.”

Set in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt, Cape Town, the...

M-Net Greenlights Season Two Of Fremantle Mystery Thriller ‘Reyka’

Iain Glen and Kim Engelbrecht will return for a second season of South Africa’s M-Net crime thriller series Reyka. Production on the Fremantle co-production, from writer Rohan Dickson, will begin early next year ahead of a late 2023 season launch. Season one of the show followed the titular Reyka (Engelbrecht) as a crime profiler hunting an elusive killer in KwaZulu-Natal’s sugarcane fields. Lemohang Tsipa and Samkelo Ndlovu are joining the cast for season two, which centers around couples who are attacked on the docks of Durban. Serena Cullen of Serena Cullen Productions in the UK (Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and Harriet Gavshon produce for Quizzical Pictures, with Serena Cullen, Gavshon Dickson, Nomsa Philiso, Jan du Plessis and Julie Hodge the executive producers.

David Thewlis, Thomas Brodie-Sangster Cast In Disney+’s ‘The Artful Dodger’

Filming is underway on Disney+ Australia’s drama...

South African crime drama “Reyka,” a co-production between global producer-distributor Fremantle and South African broadcaster M-Net, has been greenlit for a second season.

South African-born Kim Engelbrecht and Iain Glen (“Game of Thrones”) will reprise their roles in the series from writer and creator Rohan Dickson, with production set to kick off in January 2023. Season 2 will premiere on M-Net in late 2023.

The first season of the English-language drama follows the crime profiler Reyka Gama (Engelbrecht) who, while haunted by her past, hunts an elusive serial killer in the sugarcane fields of KwaZulu-Natal. Her experience of being abducted as a child by a farmer named Speelman (Glen) has left her traumatized but also helps her enter the minds of Africa’s most notorious criminals.

The second season centers around a series of violent attacks in the port city of Durban and will see Reyka work with a new team to find...