Assegai

For today's post, I come back to Deon Meyer's Heart of the Hunter and its Netflix's movie adaptation. A minor details that I found cool: in both the film and its source material, the main character (whose name changed in the adaptation) wields an assegai among his arsenal. I would even say that is his weapon of choice. And, well, I find it cool. I think iconic characters, whether they are heroes or villains, should have a signature weapon. James Bond has his Walther PPK, Tarzan his knife, King Arthur Excalibur, it makes sense that Zuko (Thobela in the novels) has his assegai. It gives the character a neat African twist. Anyway, assegai is the word of the day.

Heart ofthe Hunter (#1)

So I finally watched Netflix's movie adaptation of South African writer Deon Meyer's Heart of the Hunter. I enjoyed it a lot, even though it was freely adapted from the novel, which I was expecting anyway. The source material is a lot about the ghosts of Apartheid, so it had to be updated. All the same, it is solid crime fiction and a spy thriller just as much, with some top quality acting and a solid plot. Which I think was also partially inspired from other Meyer's novels. And according to Deon Meyer: "Heart of the Hunter has achieved the incredible feat of clocking No. 1 in English-language films on the Netflix Top 10 weekly rankings - the first African film to do so!" Deservedly so, I must say. I hope there is a sequel to it, or that it become the first films of a franchise. One can hope.

Heart of the Hunter soon

You know I love crime fiction, you know I love crime fiction set in South Africa, having a wife who is half South African. As I mentioned last month, Deon Meyer's Heart of the Hunter has been adapted into a movie. It will be released on Netflix this month. I can hardly wait. I watched the teaser trailer and it seemd solid. I suspect it will be a fairly lose adaptation, as a lot of the original novel, published about 20 years ago, needed modernising to make sense in this day and age. But I don't mind: they do the same for James Bond. And as I said, it seems solid. I suggest you watch it too, or read the novel. I might take my copy out of the bookshelves and refer to it as I watch, just for fun.

Heart of the Hunter

Some good news for the crime fiction addict that I am: one of Deon Meyer's novels, Heart of the Hunter, has been adapted into a movie. Well, it's not the first time that it happened, in fact a lot of his novels have been adapted, faithfully or not, in a film or a tv series. And that is not counting the original screenplays he wrote himself. But the difference here is that it will be available on Netflix in March. So I will be able to watch it. Unless there is some kind of stupid regional restrictions, which might happen, who knows. I hope this will not be the case. I have a lot of screen time to catch on when it comes to Deon Meyer's work, but at least it means I will have the pleasure to rediscover it.