SCREEN AFRICA EXCLUSIVE
Spud, the new South African film based on John van de Ruit’s bestseller of the same name, will be released nationwide by Nu Metro on 3 December on 83 screens.
There has already been much buzz around the film locally not only because the book is so popular but because the screen adaptation stars iconic British actor John Cleese.
“We’re hoping that the film will still be on circuit by mid-January but box office is always the great unknown – you never really know how a film will do. However, we believe the film is a good offering to audiences, even if you’re not a particular fan of the book,’ said producer Ross Garland at a press junket held in Johannesburg on 12 November.
At the time, Spud the movie, written and directed by Donovan Marsh, had already received its first review, a positive one from The Times entitled, “Spud set to thrill’.
Van de Ruit told Screen Africa that those audiences who have not read the book are likely to be the most objective about the film. “Before we started shooting people had concerns about how we’d pull off the crazy events in the book and transpose the characters. But, when you say you have John Cleese attached to a film, it’s like a stamp of approval. Filming at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal, in the very dormitory where all the events happened in real life, just made everything more authentic. It made it less likely that we’d mangle the book.’
Spud is not only a humorous look at the life of a shy schoolboy in a posh school populated with mad characters, it’s also about friendship, sexual awakenings, love, and white paranoia at the time of Nelson Mandela’s release.
Garland and fellow producer Brad Logan have secured an international sales agent for the film – Robbie Little – who handled sales for South Africa’s Oscar-winner, Tsotsi.
“For the film’s international launch we are targeting the European Film Market at the Berlin International Film Festival in February,’ explained Garland. “We’re hoping by then to have a good story to tell of the film’s performance in South Africa by then, In the meantime Robbie has been talking to distributors overseas. Traditionally, the genre of high school films does well at the box office so we hope that proves true for Spud.’
The novel has been published in other countries, with 25,000 copies sold in the US. Spud also has a following in England, Australia and Canada. “I sense though that South Africa is where the film has to explode box office wise,’ said Van de Ruit. “Our amazing young lead actor, Troye Sivan, has already got a huge following on YouTube thanks to his singing clips. He’s had one million views.’
On the subject of new media, Garland noted that the film has a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page. “Nu Metro, Penguin and Wimpy, who is our marketing partner in December, also have their own online Spud presences. We’re hoping for word of mouth to play a role in attracting audiences. TV sales aren’t under negotiation yet but we’re talking to SAA about in-flight entertainment.’
Attaching John Cleese to the film was no easy matter as his agents told the producers that he doesn’t do small independent films. Garland continued: “But Donovan [Marsh] was adamant and made us persevere, so we sent John a script. Luckily he liked it enough to agree to do it.’
Van de Ruit added: “I think John went beyond what we all expected – he was just so marvelous and really brought out the poignancy of “The Guv’, as well as his humour. But Troye carries the film – he’s so honest in his portrayal, so authentic and so good. It’s like he was born to play the role because he acts well, sings well and the camera loves him.’
Casting the Crazy Eight, Spud’s madcap dormitory mates, was very difficult according to Van de Ruit. “It was a six month long national campaign to find the kids, but I think we reaped the rewards of the hard labour. We thought we would end up with more options for each of the Crazy Eight, but we only had about three for each character. A lot of the kids we saw were so nervous performing in the auditions.’
When Screen Africa interviewed Marsh back in July, he spoke about the goodwill surrounding the film and “the John van de Ruit magic’.
Commenting, Garland said: “It’s important to realise that John does a huge amount of work writing his books but it does seem like there’s been a good luck charm attached to the movie. It’s so lucky that we found Troye and that we got John Cleese. Let’s hope the charm doesn’t stop there.’
Written by Joanna Sterkowicz
