Kojo secures multi-million dollar investment deal with US-based Main Street Films for feature film
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 (right) 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 co-production
treaty.
This will be Kojo’s seventh film in a producing role and the 29th film delivered by its post production 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 (left) – 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.
Says Smith: “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.
“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.
Says Smith: “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.”
Kojo chief executive officer Dale Roberts said KOJO was thrilled to be collaborating
with Main Street Films and Murali on such a great project.
Says Roberts: “This is our first time working with Main Street Films and we couldn’t be more excited. 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.”
Says Main Street owner Craig Chang: “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.”
With offices in Adelaide and Melbourne and a growing presence in Sydney and Perth, KOJO
is a multi media company specialising in storytelling for national and international clients
through content, digital, events and post-production.