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| Singer Jill Scott and actor Lucian Msamati star in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Gareth Hughes/Joy Sapieka Unit Publicist |
'Ladies' Detective' film brings Tinsel Town to tiny Botswana
Alexander McCall Smith's hit book series set in Botswana is bringing big-screen money the African country.
from the August 1, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
McCall Smith says he was relieved, as well.
"I would have been embarrassed if it had been done elsewhere," he says from a car heading to the movie set. "I think people in Botswana would have felt a real sense of having been deprived of something."
Just outside downtown Gaborone, one can now find Speedy Motors – the car repair shop owned by J.L.B. Matekoni, Mma Ramotswe's suitor.
One recent day, a good percentage of the 200-person film crew was crammed into the garage (previously just an empty space, now convincingly filled with tools and rags), shooting a scene.
Forty-six percent of the film's crew members are from Botswana, Moore says; of the 41 actors with speaking roles, 26 are local. Additionally, there are 1,200 extras – including the women sitting across the street selling oranges, a typical Botswana roadside scene.
"OK, don't anticipate the car," calls Academy Award-winning British director Anthony Minghella.
Royal Shakespeare Company actor Lucian Msamati, who plays J.L.B. Matekoni, keeps his face blank until Grammy-winning soul singer Jill Scott, cast as Mma Ramotswe, drives up in her tiny white van – a vehicle with which readers of the book will be quite familiar.
Although Ms. Scott hadn't read the books before she auditioned for the role of Mma Ramotswe, she says she was taken by the script.
"I thought, 'Wow, a whole script with no sex, no violence, nothing that a child couldn't watch. That's really nice.' "
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