Kenya’s Maasai Mara and the vibrant port city of Casablanca, Morocco, are gearing up to become the backdrop for an explosive new Hollywood thriller, Red Card.
The film, which tackles the harrowing global crisis of human trafficking, will star Academy Award winners Halle Berry and Djimon Hounsou.
Red Card, penned by Bad Boys creator George Gallo and Green Book Oscar-winner Nick Vallelonga, is directed by Joel Souza, known for Rust.
The project is scheduled to begin filming in the fourth quarter of this year, capitalizing on Kenya’s recent push to attract international productions.
This comes on the heels of a 2024 partnership with Invention Studios, which introduced lucrative tax incentives aimed at positioning Kenya as a rival to regional filming hubs like South Africa and Morocco.
The plot centers on Max Elmi, a veteran ranger played by Hounsou, whose life unravels when his son, a promising soccer star, is ensnared by a deceitful sports agent and vanishes into North Africa’s criminal underworld.
Elmi teams up with Dane Harris, a special agent, and Amanda Bruckner, an FBI supervisor portrayed by Berry, to dismantle a sprawling trafficking network.
Djimon Hounsou has earned two Academy Award nominations for his roles in Blood Diamond and In America, and also received a Golden Globe nod for Amistad. His diverse film portfolio includes standout performances in Gladiator, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, A Quiet Place Part II, and A Quiet Place: Day One.
Halle Berry broke barriers as the first African-American woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress, thanks to her acclaimed role in Monster’s Ball (2002), directed by Marc Forster. She also received both an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of legendary performer Dorothy Dandridge in the biographical TV film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.
The film’s arrival in Kenya comes amid a shift in the global production landscape. Indian director SS Rajamouli’s much-anticipated SSMB29, starring Priyanka Chopra and Mahesh Babu, recently cancelled its Kenyan shoot due to security concerns.