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Mzansi’s coastline is set to come alive with the sound of ka-ching as high-end film studios are in the works for Nelson Mandela Bay and Durban, adding to the hugely successful Cape Town Film Studios, established eight years ago, which today attracts big-budget Hollywood features. While the dreams for a new studio, set within an African film park – which will include a re-creation of the mythical land Wakanda from Marvel’s blockbuster, Black Panther – take shape in Nelson Mandela Bay, Durban’s film studios will be breaking soil next year.
Phumlani S Langa looks at what the developments will mean for SA
DURBAN’S R7.5 BILLION DEVELOPMENT
It has taken the country’s best-known film producer, Anant Singh, 15 years to realise his dream of a film studio in his home town. “The eThekwini Film City is at an advanced stage and is currently in the planning and rezoning process,” he told City Press this week. “It is the largest privately funded development in KwaZulu-Natal, with a projected cost of R7.5 billion.”
Designed as a leafy public recreational space modelled on Universal City in the US, Singh stressed the project’s potential as a key economic driver that will have the capacity to create a significant number of jobs. “It will be anchored by film studios and complemented with tourism, leisure and lifestyle elements that will, in effect, create a must-see, must-do attraction to draw both tourists and residents.”
Local telenovela Imbewu: The Seed will be one of the studio’s first residents, he said.
WAKANDA IN PORT ELIZABETH
City Press can reveal that the Nelson Mandela Bay area is also intended as a site for a state-of-the-art cinema and amusement park complex.
The Pan-African movie studios, theme park and resort will resemble US entertainment complex Disney World, but with a strict emphasis on African creativity.
Businessman MK Malefane is the face of the project, which is still in its developmental phase. It has been his long-cherished dream since the 1990s, when he led black empowerment participation in what would become e.tv.
“Should the project location be officially established in Nelson Mandela Bay – with its diversified investment and development projects that include manufacturing and agro-processing – the current levels of poverty and unemployment in the area will become a thing of the past,” said Malefane, who clearly dreams big.
He hopes that the theme park aspect will add to an appreciation of the greatness of African film.
“We plan to also recreate the city of Wakanda ... We are working with the best in this industry, including the team that built most of the Disney theme parks worldwide.
“One of the potential locations for this development in Nelson Mandela Bay is on a prime site measuring 6 000ha and with a 10km coastal and beachfront expanse.”
CAPE TOWN SURVIVES THE DROUGHT
Our coastline’s first studio venture was in Cape Town, where Singh is also a stakeholder. Cape Town Film Studios is a flagship that is paying off in spades, despite the region’s film industry suffering a huge blow when international crews cancelled their shoots because of the recent drought in the province.
A wide variety of Hollywood productions have made use of the studio’s state-of-the-art facilities and famous wave pool.
Chief executive Nico Dekker, who has been in the industry for 25 years, told City Press: “Cape Town Film Studios is almost eight years old and is the first hi-tech, custom-built studio complex of its kind in Africa.
“The studio is rated among the top 10 studio complexes in the world, comparative to its size. It is like a mother ship to the international and local film industry, and has been hosting productions with budgets ranging from R5 million to R1 billion.”
The studio is fully booked for the coming year – an encouraging sign for Port Elizabeth and Durban.
