Portal:African cinema/Page to screen/15
Trackers (2019), is a South-African co-produced crime thriller television series. It's an adaptation of South African writer Deon Meyer's best-selling 2011 novel, his seventh and the second to be adapted to the small screen. It is the first co-production between South African pay-TV channel M-Net, German public broadcaster ZDF, and the US's Cinemax. The six-part series finds its three main characters embroiled in a violent conspiracy involving organized crime, smuggled diamonds and rhinos, the CIA, and an international terrorist plot. It was MNet's most-watched show of 2019.
Deon Meyer worked closely with the show's writing team in the adaption.
"As an author, I think you are always too close to the book and too subjective to take the adaptation decisions on your own. We spent perhaps more time discussing and brainstorming the script than on any other aspect of the TV show and I was very involved with that. I think we all had a similar vision. Let’s use the book as an inspiration but not as the gospel."