The Rhinelander Affair
Based on the highly acclaimed book Black and White and Read All Over by William Kinsolving about actual events that became known as the Rhinelander affair.
1920s New York. A forbidden marriage. A sensational trial that turns a young woman’s identity into public property. A true story.
Alice Jones is a beautiful young woman of mixed race who works as a live-in maid in New York. When she secretly marries Leonard Rhinelander, the privileged son of a wealthy New York family, their marriage becomes the scandal of the city.
Leonard's family refuses to accept Alice and seeks to have the marriage annulled, claiming that Leonard was deceived about her racial identity. Alice's private life—and her body—are dragged into the public arena as the press turns the case into a national sensation. Inside the courtroom, Alice is subjected to humiliating scrutiny and invasive examinations designed to determine whether she misled Leonard over her color. Outside the court, newspapers feed a public appetite for sex, race and scandal.
Nell Gwyn
The time is right for a new appraisal of the incredible Nell Gwyn. This is being developed as a mini-series and we anticipate strong casting.
Who was she? Nell Gwyn was the most famous mistress of King Charles II of England — and one of the most captivating women of the Restoration. Before she ever reached the royal court, she dazzled London as the leading actress and comedienne at the Drury Lane Theatre, where her audience-pleasing performances made her a sensation. She charmed people from every walk of life with her wit, warmth, and irrepressible charm — and soon, she caught the eye of the King himself.
Unlike other royal mistresses, Nell was no aristocrat. She was a commoner who grew up in the boarding houses and brothels of Covent Garden, illiterate but gifted with an extraordinary memory for learning lines. She built her career not on breeding or connections, but on her intelligence, audacity, and razor-sharp humor. After becoming Charles II’s mistress in the late 1660s, she remained by his side until his death in 1685.
Her rise unfolded against the thrilling backdrop of the Restoration, when Charles II reclaimed the throne in 1660 and a new era burst into life. Science, art, architecture, and fashion flourished under his patronage, and with the reopening of the theatres, women could earn their own living onstage or with the pen for the first time in English history. It was an age of transformation — and Nell Gwyn was one of its brightest sparks.
Her story was extraordinary then. It is extraordinary now.
Arcanum: An Irish Mystery
Arcanum is being developed as a five-part television series adapted from the acclaimed novel by author Ann Mann.
Set across two timelines—contemporary Ireland and 1735—the series blends mystery, fantasy, romance and Irish history into an unforgettable story.
The mystery begins in modern-day Dublin when a troupe of Irish dancers leaves a theatre after a performance, setting off overnight for their next engagement. They never arrive. Their minibus—and everyone aboard—vanishes without a trace.
As police launch a massive search, families plead for answers and the disappearance dominates national headlines. Is it a criminal investigation? A tragic accident? Or something far more extraordinary? Veteran Dublin detective Joe is tasked with solving a case unlike anything he has ever encountered.
Rich in atmosphere, suspense and Irish mythology, Arcanum is a compelling, emotionally resonant drama where history refuses to stay buried and the past reaches across centuries to change the present forever.
Ireland Today described the novel as "Haunting and suspenseful. A delightful read."
Smouldering Charcoal
This project is developed as a feature film. It will be directed by South African Director, Phumi Morare, who was nominated at the 2022 Academy Awards, winner of the NAACP Image Award and Winner of the Student Academy Award. The film will be co-produced with South African company OurVolution led by acclaimed producer Thandi Davids. This film will be shot in South Africa and Malawi.
Published in 1992 as part of Heinemann’s African Writers Series, Smouldering Charcoal is Tiyambe Zeleza’s unforgettable portrait of life under a corrupt dictatorship in post-independence (from Great Britain) Malawi. It was recently re-issued in paperback. Gillian Rose of White Egret Films optioned the rights having come across the book while in Malawi visiting secondary schools where the novel is widely read.
The story is set during the Presidency of Dr. Hastings Banda, who was educated in the UK and US (Uni of Edinburgh and Uni of Chicago) and ruled Malawi from 1964 to 1994. The story follows two families from starkly different worlds whose lives collide during a Strike at a local bakery. On one side: a U.S.-educated journalist and his university-student girlfriend, idealists who believe in a freer future. On the other: a working-class family from a rural village, struggling to survive and seeing first-hand the tightening grip of authoritarian power.
Their intersection forces each to question who they are, what they stand for, and how much they’re willing to risk. Despite moments of heartbreak, this is ultimately a story of resilience, dignity, and the quiet courage that can change a nation.
Smouldering Charcoal will be Directed by Phumi Morare, whose credits include When The Sun Sets. Her recent short film Why the Cattle Wait won at the 2025 Joburg Film Festival.
Pilgrim’s Progress
Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the most enduring adventure stories ever written: one ordinary man abandons the safety of the world he knows and sets out on a perilous journey toward a promised place of freedom and redemption. Along the way he encounters seductive strangers, dangerous landscapes, false prophets, unexpected allies and enemies, and every imaginable temptation to turn back. At its heart, it is a story about what we are willing to risk to become the person we believe we were meant to be.
Our reimagining takes the bones of Bunyan’s classic and turns them into a premium, darkly imaginative mini-series for a modern audience. Rather than a straightforward Christian allegory, the journey becomes a mysterious, psychologically charged quest in which every character, place and obstacle has a deeper meaning. The result is a contemporary and emotionally complex story, still relevant more than 350 years since it was originally written.
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine was a complex character, hard to like, difficult to ignore. He went from obscure English corset-maker and tax collector to become a political radical who crossed the Atlantic in 1774, carrying little more than a letter of introduction from Benjamin Franklin. Within months, he would write Common Sense, the incendiary pamphlet that gave ordinary Americans a language for rebellion and helped turn resistance to Britain into a demand for independence.
The American Revolution was only the beginning. Paine went on to become a revolutionary in France, and narrowly escaped the guillotine. He challenged kings, churches and established power wherever he found them, writing The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason and advocating republican government, religious freedom and social reform.
This is the story of a man whose ideas made him famous, feared and eventually despised by many of the societies he helped transform. His is the story of an unlikely revolutionary who changed the world with words—and paid a very high price for refusing to stop speaking his mind.