Universal Pictures snaps up iNumber Number

All it took was a trailer for the film iNumber Number to be catapulted onto the world stage. Directed by Donovan Marsh, the movie tells the story of an honest undercover cop, played by Sdumo Mtshali of Isibaya, and his partner, (Presley Chweneyagae of Tsotsi fame), who are cheated out of a reward by corrupt superiors. Mtshalis character, Chili, penetrates a cash-in-transit heist gang and, instead of busting them, convinces his partner to participate in a one-off score.

Universal Pictures snapped up the rights to remake iNumber Number even before it made it to the screen at the Toronto Film Festival.

Marsh, who also wrote and edited the film, would not be drawn on how much Universal Pictures paid.

The film got picked up before we had even screened it at the Toronto Film Festival. We had three big studios bidding for the rights, and eventually Universal bought the rights to remake it within two years, said Marsh.

The remake, which will be adapted for US audiences, is likely to be set in Detroit, Michigan and is unlikely to feature any of the South African cast.

Interest in the film did not stop there. A Los Angeles-based distribution company, Wrekin Hill Entertainment, has agreed to do a 10-city screening in the US of the film in its current format.

We had no ambition to distribute outside South Africa so for all of this to happen is incredibly exciting, said Marsh.

The film is making waves even though its budget was significantly less than $1-million, lower than the budgets for other prominent South African films. District 9 had an estimated budget of $30-million while the Oscar-winning Tsotsi cost about $3-million to make.

We made clever use of what we had to make the film big and spectacular without spending a lot of money, said Marsh.

The one thing we did go big on were the action scenes. We hardly used any special effects so all the crash scenes were real, and that got a little pricey.

iNumber Number will be released countrywide on April 25 .

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