‘Spinners’: ‘Fast & Furious’ Meets ‘Top Boy’ In Afro-European Co-Pro That Is So Much More Than An Extreme Sports Series
20.02.2024 - 15:29
/ deadline.com
Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. That’s why we’re doing the hard work for you.
This week, we detail a co-production from South Africa and France that spotlights the four-wheeled sport of spinning. Not heard of it? Well neither had we, but on closer inspection this series is far more than an exhibition of a little-known extreme pasttime. Creatives on the Showmax–Canal+ co-pro tell us why ‘Spinners‘ holds a mirror up to society, and where they think it could travel next.
Name: Spinners
Country: South Africa & France
Networks: Showmax & Canal+
Producer: Empreinte Digitale & Natives at Large
International sales: Studiocanal
For fans of: Fast & Furious franchise, Top Boy, City of God
There have been plenty TV shows down the years about extreme sports – yielding sometimes mixed results – but few have been as ambitious as Spinners.
The co-production between South African streamer Showmax and France’s Canal+ attempts numerous feats across eight episodes, telling stories about society and diversity via the medium of spinning – potentially the most dangerous extreme sport involving four wheels you’ve never heard of.
Enter co-creators Joachim Landau and Benjamin Hoffman, who have tended to focus on documentaries down the years but who took to premium drama like ducks to water with Spinners.
The show’s inception goes way back to 2017, when Hoffman was in Cape Town working on a documentary project about a totally different topic.
“A friend invited me to a spinning