The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, the film based on Alexander McCall Smith's book, is having trouble casting the leading lady from the local talent in Botswana, however there are plenty of other ways in which the film is helping the local economy.

Enrst Engels, the Director of Camelthorn film production company, says that the film will be shot in Botswana in May and it will be the first time ever a Hollywood film has been shot in the country. He also pointed out that locals are going to be hired as part of the crew, drivers, hospitality and catering, extras and for minor roles willl all be needed from local industry.

Engels also said that the casting agency couldn't find a local actress to play the lead role of Mma-Ramotswe because the candidates lacked certain acting abilities and he said that only a few had previous acting experience. Yet the search goes on.

The film is adapated from the novel by Richard Curtis and Anthony Minghella who also directs.

It's great news from allAfrica.com that the film is really going to pour itself into Africa and film there as well as try and use as much local resources and talent as possible, it certainly makes sense as well as generally being a good thing to do, after all we could easily see the film company ship everything in they needed and just borrow the locations.