Africa Channel Studios has launched development on an untitled drama series exploring the true story of legendary African rock band Wells Fargo. David Straiton (House, Doctor of Medicine, Narcos) and Nora Lonergan (MacGyver) will produce, with writer-musician Daisy Martey penning the pilot. Narendra Reddy and Brendan Gabriel will executive produce from The Africa Channel Studios.
Wells Fargo is a mid-1970s Zimbabwean (formerly Rhodesian) rock group that was prominent in the “Zimrock” scene that popularized the hippie-inspired counterculture in Africa. The series will follow drummer Ebba Chitambo and the rise to national fame of drummer Ebba Chitambo and his bandmates as they find themselves at the sharp end of a revolution: the impossible underdogs in the fight to liberate a white-controlled, segregated Rhodesia. .
“After hearing the music and history of Wells Fargo, we were so inspired and intrigued that we dove into the amazing true story of the band and located the rights to life,” Straiton said. “We approached The Africa Channel, who shared our vision and saw an opportunity to executive produce a timely and unpublished African story.”
“We were very inspired by the Wells Fargo story and while it is a period piece, it felt extremely relevant to the era and appropriate to our mission of telling stories about Africa and the diaspora,” added Reddy, who serves as an executive at The Africa Channel. Vice President and General Manager. “We are delighted to be working with David, Nora and Daisy to bring this story to the world stage.”
Straiton is a director and producer who has helped bring to life more than 150 hours of primetime drama, across series including the Emmy and Golden Globe winner. MD House and Emmy and Golden Globe nominees drug traffickers. The executive produced MacGyver for CBS and hemlock grove for Netflix and has directed pilots, including the one for SyFy Blood donationwho was also an executive producer.
Lonergan is an American producer of half-Dominican descent who recently produced the grant-winning short film Angie, which found success on the festival circuit after it premiered at the Atlanta Film Festival. She previously worked in television as the executive producer and co-executive producer of MacGyverbetween the second and fifth seasons of the CBS reboot.
Martey is a British-Ghanaian writer and musician from South London who recently completed work at Netflix. vikings cleave Valhallaand has previously written for Britannia Y Bulletproof. She is known on the music side as the lead singer of the English electronic band Morcheeba, and was named one of the UK’s Greatest Singers of the African Diaspora in the Sonya Boyce devotional installation at the National Portrait Gallery. .
Straiton is represented by Buchwald, Oscars Abrams Zimel & Associates (Toronto) and Paul Miloknay, attorney; Martey from The Agency (UK).
