Minghella
Pollack
Miramax Films will reteam with Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack's Mirage Enterprises along with producer Amy J. Moore to adapt a television pilot from Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling series about a female gumshoe in Botswana, "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency."
The property is being developed as a television series for Miramax, which also has retained character rights to the iconic heroine of the novels, private investigator Precious Ramotswe. The compassionate but eminently sensible black sleuth swills bush tea as she tracks down wayward children, philandering husbands and con men and falls in love with the owner of a local garage.
A law professor from Edinburgh U. who grew up in Zimbabwe, Smith got to know Botswana's capital, Gaborone, when he set up the university's law school there.
The author has published four novels in the "Ladies' Detective" series. A fifth will be published by Pantheon/Anchor Books in the U.S. in April, with a sixth due this summer in the U.K. and next spring in U.S. bookstores. The books took the publishing world by surprise last year, making the New York Times bestseller list.
"I think what's nice about the way we're going in to do this is that with five books out and a sixth on the way, it gives us an enormous potential to develop this material," Miramax exec VP of European production and development Colin Vaines told
Daily Variety.
"I don't think there's anything else out there quite like this," he added. "It's a world that I don't think has ever really been seen properly, and I know Anthony feels he wants it to be as authentic as possible."
No director or writers have yet been attached.
"I had always hoped that the story of Precious Ramotswe would be guided to the screen by people who understand and appreciate what she stands for, and I am satisfied that in this deal we have found those very persons," Smith said.
Project was brought to Miramax by Mirage and will be produced through the two companies' three-year first-look producing agreement. South Africa-based American producer Moore first optioned the books and will co-produce through her Rainbow Nation company.
Vaines and Miramax senior VP of production and development Michelle Raimo will oversee the project for the studio. Exec VP of business affairs Steve Hutensky and U.K.-based VP of business and legal affairs Elizabeth MacFarlane negotiated the deal for Miramax with reps for Moore, Mirage and Smith.
After collaborating on Minghella's "The English Patient," "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and "Cold Mountain," Miramax formalized its relationship with Mirage in December. A number of projects are being developed under the pact, including a recently announced adaptation of British author Liz Jensen's forthcoming novel "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax," which Minghella is slated to direct.
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