Viola Davis’ JuVee Productions to Shoot Refugee Drama in South Africa

Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions, which recently wrapped the action-thriller “G20” for Amazon Studios and MRC Film in Cape Town, is planning to return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee’s improbable journey to the U.S., the company’s head of film production and development, Melanie Clark, revealed this week at the Joburg Film Festival.

Developing the film with a working title of “The Refugee,” Clark said Davis and Tennon’s production banner is “actively working on [it] with some local partners and are in the process of figuring out how to shoot it” in South Africa, adding that “we do plan to shoot that here.”

The veteran production executive described the project as “the true story of a young Sierra Leonean boy who lost his mother in [the country’s civil war] and found himself alone, because no family would take him in any refugee camp. He felt for some time that his mother was still alive and was determined that he would find her,” she said.

A soccer prodigy, the boy was discovered by U.N. aid workers in a refugee camp and ultimately invited to try out for Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy. “He thought, ‘If I become visible and well-known playing my favorite sport, my mother will see me and we will find each other. And that did, in fact, happen,” Clark added.

“G20” stars Davis as an American president who must bring all her statecraft and military…