GEORGE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - The Du Toit brothers, De Wet and Rudolf, are back in George from Cape Town after filming their latest project, Tarzan: curse of the mummy which features South African actor Neil Sandilands.
"It has been the most exciting and challenging project we have been involved in to date. Obstacles were thrown at us right from the start but we managed it quite well.
"On our way from George to Cape Town, our Land Rover Discovery broke down close to Caledon. We were so determined to get this film done that we left our vehicle at the filling station of Riviersonderend, and took a lift all the way to Cape Town, rented a car to travel around, and to get back to our Land Rover after filming," says De Wet, who is in the role of Tarzan.
They have had to deal with the wardrobe rentals for all the actors involved as they have so many characters in film.
"Our challenges also involved getting to the vast locations scattered across the Cape Town surroundings and organizing props for the film such as full-scale lions, spears, bows and arrows, guns, knives, a primitive canoe and the list goes on."
This is one of their most ambitious projects yet with big-name actors attached, and various exotic and remote locations around Cape Town which added a certain feel of realism to it, such as the huge sand dunes at Atlantis, Boom Slang caves high up in the mountains of Muizenberg with real flame torches lighting up the interior of the bat infested caves.
The old Cape Town library, which is almost 100 years old and depicts the 'House of Lords' scene from old England during the 1930s was one of the locations. "This really took us back in time," says an enthused De Wet.
Neil Sandilands the main villain
"We are fortunate enough to have veteran actor Neil Sandilands in our movie. He resides in Los Angeles these days and recently got casted alongside Tom Hanks in a new Hollywood movie.
"Working with Neil was an absolute pleasure as he is very professional. He also placed his faith in our project as he was keen from the start to be part of this Tarzan short film."
Sandilands plays the main villain in the film which is the Egyptian god Anubis. "We did a great scene at the ruins on Macassar beach across from the Cape Town Film Studios where the Black Sails TV series and various other USA film projects were filmed."
Rudolph says, "This is a unique film as South African born actor Arnold Vosloo played the Mummy in the original Hollywood film alongside Brandan Frazer, and now we have Neil Sandilands playing an Egyptian character in our Mummy film as well.
"We also have the Lawrence of Arabia character in the film played by Rudolf which adds another Egyptian element to the film.
"Neil is interested to see how far this film will travel in the USA especially at various film festivals in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, which is our main aim with this film project. We hope to acquire funding for a feature films with the exposure at film festivals."
Post production done in George
Due to Covid-19 they could not finish the project which is now 70% complete, but they will be returning to Cape Town for the remaining scenes. Post production will happen here in George with Bernard Frost Productions doing their sound designing and the synchronizing of the footage and sound clips.
"We have a few upcoming projects still planned to do this year such as a reality show and another film which will be filmed entirely in George with a totally different theme," says Rudolph.
Related article: Du Toit brothers have big plans
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