Mali’s Dogon tribe to feature in movie helmed by emerging New Zealand film director
New Zealand writer-director James Morcan, best known for his new-release, Australian-produced film Anno 2020, has attached to direct an action-adventure movie set in Mali and featuring the West African nation’s enigmatic Dogon people.
Titled ‘Deniables: The Dogon Initiative’, the movie will be based on the novel ‘The Dogon Initiative’, one of 12 novels co-authored by Morcan and his father Lance, and the first book in a planned ‘Deniables’ series. The New Zealand father-and-son writing team’s books are published under the Sterling Gate Books banner.
Speaking from Sydney, Australia, this week, James Morcan said he and his father knew from the outset their novel, which is currently exclusive to Amazon, would translate to an exciting feature film.
“Reviewers of this and other adventure novels of ours have commented that the storylines feel very cinematic,” he said. “That’s not surprising as we both have a love of film and are both screenwriters as well as novelists.”
The younger Morcan said ‘The Dogon Initiative’ is about a group of foreign mercenaries who are hired as deniable assets by a newly formed humanitarian division of the CIA.
“It was inspired by a true-life mystery of astronomy, and it covers some of the many myths and theories surrounding Mali’s fascinating Dogon people. We highlight their unexplained knowledge of the invisible-to-the-eye Sirius B white dwarf star, the rings of Saturn and other heavenly bodies, as well as their rumoured ancestral relationship to ancient Egyptians.
“Our leading characters, the foreign mercenaries, have been nicknamed ‘the Deniables’ because their existence isn’t officially acknowledged by the CIA. They’re tasked with saving Mali’s persecuted Dogon people from genocide.
“The operation must be carried out in stealth while journeying across some of West Africa’s most hostile terrain. As if all that’s not enough, they’re also instructed to help solve an ancient astronomical mystery linked to the pyramids of Egypt.
“Our Deniables soon find themselves fighting for their lives when they get caught in the middle of warring ethnic factions in Mali. Their only way to survive is to join with the Dogon in a race against the clock. The stakes are so high that not only could an entire indigenous group be wiped off the face of the Earth, but all evidence that supports advanced ancient technology theories surrounding the Dogon and a lost civilization thesis may be destroyed in the process.”
Morcan is currently celebrating the successful Australian red-carpet cinema screenings of his mystery-drama movie Anno 2020, which represents his directorial debut. As well as directing that award-winning film he adapted it from his solo-authored novel of the same name.
Several of the Morcans’ co-authored novels have been regular visitors to Amazon’s bestseller lists. They include the historical adventures ‘White Spirit’ and ‘Into the Americas’, and the international thriller ‘The Ninth Orphan’. These and several others, including some with name actors attached, have been adapted to feature film screenplays and are in early development.
Amazon link to ‘The Dogon Initiative’:https://www.amazon.com/Dogon-Initiative-Deniables-Book-ebook/dp/B07NKTD515
IMDb film industry link to James Morcan:https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1909596/
