South African actor, Sean Cameron Michael, has been cast in the title role in Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls – a retelling of the H. Rider Haggard classic novel King Solomon’s Mines for Los Angeles-based production company, The Asylum.
The action adventure film is directed by Mark Atkins (War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave) and began shooting early February in and around Johannesburg, Bethlehem, Ficksburg, Mpumalanga and Durban, utilising many of the locations from the original novel.
The character, Allan Quatermain, was originally made famous by veterans Stewart Granger and Richard Chamberlain. When their US name lead actor became unavailable for the SA shoot, it was decided to cast locally. Michael was hired on the strength of his previous work, which includes the Emmy Award winning mini-series, The Triangle (produced by Bryan Singer and Dean Devlin) and Faith Like Potatoes (directed by Regardt van der Bergh).
He is the only South African in the entire US and UK cast and crew, which includes Christopher Adamson (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mutant Chronicles), Natalie Stone (Richard III, Salomaybe?) and Wittly Jourdan (Blood and Bone).
Michael’s previous productions include Egoli, This Life, The Adventures of Sinbad and The Gospel of Matthew. He can soon be seen locally in Darrell James Roodt’s new mini-series, Ella Blue, premiering 12 March on M-Net and Rayda Jacobs’ Confessions of a Gambler on the local film circuit in April.
Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls releases in Hollywood in April this year. The Asylum has produced and distributed over 300 films worldwide since 1997.
