EGOT-winner John Legend is set to star in “The Road Home,” about South African jazz legends Hugh Masekela and Miriam “Mama Africa” Makeba, and their Apartheid-era Graceland tour with Paul Simon. Legend will portray American singer, actor and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte.
Principal photography on “The Road Home” — directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon and backed by Canal+, Studiocanal, Flora Films, as well as South African co-producer Blue Ice — is underway in South Africa.
“The Road Home” follows as renowned trumpeter Masekela (award-winning South African star Thabo Rametsi) is pulled between two worlds. In the late 1980s, the anti-Apartheid Movement, led by his mentor, fierce anti-Apartheid advocate Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (Oscar nominee Guy Pearce), launches a boycott against Hugh’s friend Paul Simon (South African-born actor-musician Johnny Flynn), over his township music-inspired album “Graceland,” accusing Simon of violating the United Nations’ Cultural Boycott. Emmy, Grammy and Tony winner and Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo portrays powerhouse vocalist Makeba as she joins forces with Masekela — who sees music as a mighty weapon in the struggle — to create the Graceland band, a supergroup designed to bring South Africa’s voice to the world.
