McCall Smith script is Newman's final role

Published on Thursday 30 July 2009 22:13

THE last known role of Hollywood great Paul Newman and the first film script by the best-selling novelist Alexander McCall Smith, have come together in a movie about one of nature's most endearing creatures.

The Meerkats, a dramatised wildlife film described as the coming-of-age story of a young meerkat named Kolo, opens in British cinemas next week.

It is narrated by Paul Newman, in what is thought to be the last project the screen star undertook before his death last year at the age of 83.

It hopes to echo the Oscar-winning success of wildlife cinema hit March of the Penguins.

The story was penned by McCall Smith – the Edinburgh author best known for the Botswana-based No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, as well as tales of genteel Edinburgh life in the Scotland Street series.

McCall Smith and Newman share ties to brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, two of Hollywood's most influential producers, who backed the project.

The film tells the story of a family of meerkats in southern Africa's Kalahari who have to contend with predators such as snakes and eagles in their daily foraging for food.

Cameramen gathered 150 hours of film of meerkats living in the desert. McCall Smith was then brought on board to write the story of Kolo using edited footage.

"The family's the thing for meerkats," said McCall Smith. "And in their connections to each other and to their surroundings, they are a model of resilience and fortitude for us all."

Producer Joe Oppenheimer said McCall Smith was approached at the very start of the project, and joined the production about a year later.

"We wanted his prose style and a storyteller's eye on what we had," he said.

"We were telling a drama, based on biological fact, but we wanted to make sure we were telling a good story. He knows the territory very well in terms of Africa, and the Kalahari."

The Kalahari crosses into Botswana, where McCall Smith set the adventures of his fictional detective, Precious Ramotswe.

The 83-minute U-certificate film opens in more than 50 cinemas – a large number for a documentary. It is directed by James Honeybourne, a former Wildlife On One producer who currently features in the new BBC1 reality programme, Wildest Dream, in which nine wildlife enthusiasts compete for a job at the BBC's Natural History Unit.

The Meerkats a co-production of BBC Films and the BBC Natural History Unit, is co-financed by The Weinstein Company, the US film studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein.

The Weinstein brothers, also backed the television series of the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, with the opening film directed by the late Anthony Minghella.

Newman, star of classic films like The Hustler and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and founder of the Newman's Own food range, was approached by Weinstein, who knew the actor well, Mr Oppenheimer said.

"It was recorded near his house on the east coast. The whole thing was done down the line, to a studio in London," he said.

"He liked the animals, he liked what a natural history film is about. He was a politically committed man, and there is a subtle environmental message because droughts are increasing in Africa."

"He's a consummate professional and his gravelly, grandparental voice was exactly what the thing required."