US and South Africa-based outfit Nthibah Pictures, whose genre film Boy Kills World goes out on 2,400 screens in the US this Friday (April 26), has revealed its next feature project, Project Legion, to be directed by Jozua Malherbe.
It is the first since parent company Talent10 Holdings Investment Group confirmed a multi-million dollar investment into Nthibah from the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).
Wayne Fitzjohn, chairman of Nthibah Pictures and founder and CEO of Talent10 Holdings, said the IDC funds will go towards significantly expanding Nthibah’s content slate.
Project Legion (working title), the first feature fully financed and produced under the new investment, will reunite Fitzjohn, Nthibah Pictures CEO Simon Swart and Malherbe (BBC crime series Devil’s Peak). The trio previously partnered as producers on Donovan Marsh’s mystery crime-thriller I Am All Girls, released by Netflix in 2021.
The new film is a modern-day adventure with science fiction and fantasy elements about a dreamer-turned-prizefighter.
Malherbe and Fitzjohn are co-writing the script for Project Legion, which is intended as the first title in a possible franchise and comes as Nthibah continues to ramp up.
Moritz Mohr’s Boy Kills World, which premiered in the Midnight Madness section at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, was fully financed by Nthibah and is one of the most expensive films ever to shoot in South Africa.
It stars Bill Skarsgård as Boy, a character left orphaned, deaf, and mute when his family is brutally murdered in front of him. Inspired by an inner voice taken from his favourite video game, Boy escapes to the jungle where a mysterious shaman trains him to become a lethal warrior. The film’s roster of producers includes Sam Raimi and Roy Lee.
“We are building something very special in the Boy Kills World universe. We’ve got many different IPs that we are trying to create inside of that universe including games and animated series,” Fitzjohn said.
Project Legion comes from “outside that universe” but will still be one of Nthibah’s most ambitious endeavours yet. The film is likely to be made on a bigger scale and budget than Boy Kills World.
Boy Kills World will finally reach cinemas this week following its TIFF premiere. As well as its saturation release in the US through joint distributors Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions, the film is getting a wide release on the same day in the UK through Signature Entertainment.
Originally published at https://www.screendaily.com/news/boy-kills-world-producer-nthibah-pictures-lines-up-next-feature-project-legion-exclusive/5192604.article
