Dream world film city

[Ming]

The long awaited Dream world film City was launched in Cape Town yesterday, Cape town will have its own giant film studio between the N2 and Baden Powell Drive opening in December next year. The Dream world film City is being headed by the famous film maker Anant Singh.It will compromise of four huge sound stages. No more waiting around in the truck when its pouring with rain. The studio will employ between 6000 and 8000 people and should make Cape town a favourite film production destination.

[craigieji]

Hey, Ming
Is that film studio going ahead? I thought the project had stalled.

[Ming]

Yes Craig the launch of the Dreamworld Film City took place in a marquee erected on a muddy field, surrounded by alien vegetation on Monday. Cape Town mayor Helen Zille urged guests to use their imagination and envisage state-of-the-art new studios on the spot where they stood. "This is a landmark event. We are very pleased to have lift-off," she said.

Anant Singh said "It took longer than we would have liked, but we are very excited," he said. "There is a lot of interest from international film studios."


Until now, Hollywood had relied heavily on Eastern Europe for filming outside the US, he said. But labour costs there were now being regulated as nations joined the European Union. This made South Africa, and the Cape in particular, an increasingly attractive alternative as labour costs here remained cheaper than in the US and Europe.

Once Dreamworld was complete, "we (will) have the goodwill, the technical capacity and the facilities for the industry to grow," he added.

Marcel Golding, head of e-tv, said the station already filmed 400 hours of local content a year and much of this could take place at Dreamworld.


With the huge demands for supporting industries, like carpentry and other trades, he expected Dreamworld to serve as a major nodal point for new development and the benefits would flow to the surrounding local communities of Khayelitsha, the Cape Flats and Macassar, he said.

Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said the film studios would fire the imagination of children from poor neighbouring communities.

With a major film studio on their doorstep, "they could dream of becoming stuntmen or gaffers".There would be spin-offs for tourism, citing a film made for the Indian diaspora world-wide which had boosted the number of Indian tourists to South Africa.

The provincial MEC for Environment, Planning and Economic Development, Tasneem Essop, promised that the environmentally sensitive parts of the site - 90 hectares - would be protected. "The wetland has been saved," she said. Singh said various zoning matters would be attended to in the next few months and building of the first phase would start next year.