Mannequin Pictures has optioned the screen rights to the political thriller Good Hope, the debut novel of South African author, political advisor and communications specialist, Nick Clelland, for adaptation into a series. The deal was brokered by literary agent Catrina Wessels on behalf of Karavan Press.
Mannequin, a Johannesburg-based, award-winning production company specialising in South African content for an international audience, plans to produce a high-end series based on Clelland’s gripping, dystopian novel set in an alternative present-day Cape Town.
“It’s a fictional projection of what a breakaway Cape Republic might be like to live in. […] In it, Clelland imagines a totalitarian and surveillance state that projects the perfect Cape society with frightening revelations of what keeps it going,” writes Ferial Haffajee, veteran journalist and newspaper editor, on Daily Maverick, describing it as a must-read novel that she read in one sitting.
“There’s a rich world of story which we would like to see live at its fullest on screen,” says Warwick Eccles, development executive at Mannequin, about Good Hope.
The adaptation will be developed by Mannequin Pictures as part of its growing slate of prestige projects aimed at both local and international audiences.
About the book
THE WESTERN CAPE IS NOW AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY. SUCCESSFUL, SAFE, MURDEROUS.
Lisa Robinson has moved from Durban to Cape Town to be with Grant, the prospective next First Minister of the Good Hope Territory. The GHT is the safest and most prosperous country in the southern hemisphere – at a price. Citizens contract to be tracked by drones, executions are synchronised to the Noon Gun and only those with qualifications are permitted to vote in the Qualified Franchise system. Life here is picture-perfect. The Mother City is pristine. Everyone has a job. Tourism is booming. But this shiny new state has decided that Lisa is a problem, and problems here disappear quickly and quietly.
‘A riveting read and a scary glimpse into what happens when liberty is traded for order. Unputdownable.’ — GEORDIN HILL-LEWIS
Publication date: 29 April 2024
ISBN: 978-1-0672224-1-3
About the author
NICK CLELLAND is a political animal. He was elected to the Durban Metropolitan Council in 1996 at the age of twenty-four, and three years later as a Member of Parliament. Though quickly tired of elected politics, he has made a career of it all the same. He has worked as a political advisor, consultant and coach with mayors, ministers, premiers and prime ministers around the world, and was the brains behind Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ behaviour change strategy. A keen yet mediocre cyclist, Nick lives in Cape Town.
For rights queries, contact: Catrina Wessels
karavanpress.com 
Good grief – Good Hope!
Congratulations to all concerned.
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