American R&B singer Jill Scott will star in a film based on Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling 'The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series.
Work on the film, which will be directed by Anthony Minghella ('Cold Mountain', 'The English Patient'), starts this month in Botswana.
Scott takes the lead role of Precious Ramotswe in a story about a Botswana woman starting up the country's first female-owned detective agency.
Singer-actress Anika Noni Rose, who recently starred in 'Dreamgirls', will play Ramotswe's secretary, Grace Makutsi.
"The movie has two primary characters. One is Mma Ramotswe and the other is Botswana as a whole. It tries to tell a story of what is wonderful, what is magical, about Botswana and about the rest of Africa," Minghella said in a Reuters interview.
The film will be completed in September.
McCall Smith's books have had worldwide success, selling over 15m English-language copies alone.
