Bill Condon Tells Story of Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’ in ‘Road Home’

Bill Condon, director of “Dreamgirls,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and the $1.26 billion-grossing “Beauty and the Beast,” knows how to film a musical number.

That made him a natural choice to helm the “The Road Home,” starring Cynthia Erivo, Thabo Rametsi and Guy Pearce. Palisades Park Pictures launched international sales at Cannes. It’s the story of how Paul Simon and numerous South African artists navigated anti-apartheid boycotts to create one of the best-selling albums — and most politically significant tours — of the 1980s. Just don’t expect its real-life characters to randomly break into song.

“It’s not a musical, but a deeply emotional story that’s enhanced and told through some of the greatest music anyone’s ever heard,” says Condon, enjoying a glass of local wine in Cape Town, South Africa, after scouting locations for a June start. The story follows exiled trumpeter Hugh Masekela (Thabo Rametsi), a man torn between his friend Simon and anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Trevor Huddleston (Guy Pearce). Famed singer Miriam Makeba (Erivo) helps to launch the Graceland tour in hopes of shedding light on South African artists amid a cultural boycott.

“It’s a story of an incredible resistance and resilience that this country and these people have had,” Condon says. “What’s so interesting about this film is that it [shows] two forces on the same side. They both want to bring down its regime.”

The $25 million-range project took off about six years ago, when the Hugh Masekela Heritage Foundation approached “60 Minutes” writer Michael Bronner about creating the story, says Laura Bickford (“Traffic”). She is producing the StudioCanal-Canal Plus-Flora Films feature through her eponymous shingle alongside Bronner for Smashing Dandelions, Greg Yolen for 1000 Eyes and South Africa-based Videovision Entertainment CEO Anant Singh. “Before he died, Hugh hired his friend Zakes Mda to write a treatment for a movie about Father Huddleston,” she adds. Screenwriter Bronner (“United 93”) and Mda share a story credit.

The production secured music rights from Simon, who’ll be portrayed onscreen by a soon-to-be-announced actor. But “this is not remotely a biopic,” Condon stresses. “It’s about all of these forces converging over one issue: that Paul Simon went to South Africa to work with local musicians on that classic album, ‘Graceland,’ and in so doing was seen to be sort of breaking the anti-apartheid boycott. I think he would disagree with that, because he wasn’t paid, but that became a hugely controversial issue for some people.”

Erivo has “wanted to tell this story for a very, very long time,” Condon says, as her singing and dancing along with the Miriam Makeba song “Pata Pata” on a resurfaced TikTok clip attests. “Strangely enough, I’m studying her at the moment,” Erivo tells an interviewer. “I love her.” While the “Wicked” star’s box office appeal and three Oscar nominations will certainly help sell the film in global territories, South African celeb Somizi Mhlongo (“Sarafina!”) said that “we [already] have the best actresses and actors in this country … and I’m talking global standards,” according to the South African.

Yet even as some online commenters weighed in with similar concerns, Mhlongo acknowledged that stars like Erivo would attract audiences to projects about his country. One of the film’s producers and a lead actor are South African, so “Home” should have no trouble attracting audiences there. Canal+ recently gained a controlling stake in South African distrib MultiChoice, and StudioCanal has distribution rights to the film in the country, alongside the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Benelux, Poland, Australia and New Zealand.