The Lowveld is playing host to the first South African animated feature film, a R15-million production based on Sir Percy Fitzpatrick’s classic tale Jock of the Bushveld.
Film producer and director Duncan MacNellie originally adapted the story to film back in 1986 in a version that featured Gordon Mulholland and Jonathan Rands.
MacNellie says South Africa’s leading 2D animator, Ric Capecchi, had a lot to do with getting this new project off the ground.
”I felt I had had enough of the story,” says MacNellie. ”He [Capecchi] felt strongly that it was ideally suited to animation and that it was the only classic animal story that hadn’t been animated.
”What makes a good film is the story. Sir Percy Fitzpatrick’s tale about his adventures as a transport rider in the 1880s and the courage and loyalty shown by his Staffordshire bull terrier, Jock, is the stuff of legends.”
According to MacNellie, the film will be told from the dog’s perspective, giving new life to the old tale.
”Jock will of course be the hero. We are currently working on the villain, who is a baboon. The secondary characters, such as the bead-wearing rooster with numerous wives, will also add immense African depth and feel to the movie,” says Capecchi.
MacNellie and Capecchi have relocated to the Lowveld and set up a studio outside Nelspruit to begin working on the film.
”I have always been quite keen to get out here to live,” says MacNellie. ”This is where the story is set, so there are constant reference points like trees and animals.”
He says pre-production of the film has started with a team of nine young Lowveld locals who have all studied animation. This team will expand to 25 as they get further down the line. ”We are in the very early stages of pre-production with character styling, scripting and storyboarding.”
The chairperson of Lowveld Tourism, Mark Schormann, says the economic spin-offs for the region are great. ”All of the young team working on this movie are locals and the producers will be providing a lot of training and development during the course of the production,” he says.
MacNellie says the film is scheduled for a Christmas 2010 release and is being completely funded locally. ”The investors are all local, Lowvelders. There is a good cross-section [of investors] made up mainly of local business people.”
The filmmakers are currently discussing casting and say they are looking at mainly local actors with a couple of international actors as well.
”Marketing a film like this will depend partly on the level of artists we are able to secure; that is, voice artists and musicians,” says MacNellie, adding that the film will be exhibited to agents and distributors at festivals during the course of production.