The Josh Trank helmed sci-fi / superhero adventure motion picture, Chronicle, distributed by 20th Century Fox and shot in South Africa by Film Afrika last year, took the No.1 spot in the US this weekend – raking in $22m in domestic box office receipts.
This came as a pleasant surprise for Fox, which projected the film would make only $8m this weekend – traditionally one of the slowest weekends of the year for the movie industry. Chronicle had a modest $12m budget, which is considered relatively low for a studio production.
The city of Seattle, with its landmark Space Needle – was the chosen setting for the movie and the production design team headed up by Oscar® nominee Stephen Altman (Ray, Gosford Park) pulled off the significant challenge of recreating this very distinctive city in Cape Town.
In consideration of economics, infrastructure, and crew-base, the international filmmakers explored various production centres around the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver, Cape Town, Michigan, and Louisiana. Ultimately, the producers believed it made sense to bring the movie to South Africa that offers a solid infrastructure, a world-class crew and the new, state-of-the-art sound stages at Cape Town Film Studios. Despite the diversity of locations the production design team still had to create the “look’ of an American suburbia.
Cape Town based production entity, Film Afrika Worldwide, known for its accomplished and impressive track record of producing major international film projects in South Africa, facilitated the production for the US production Company Davis Entertainment.
Young US filmmaker Josh Trank makes his feature directorial debut with Chronicle produced by John Davis and Adam Schroeder, with James Dodson serving as Executive Producer, and Greig Buckle as Line Producer.
Chronicle stars an exciting line up of young and upcoming talent: Dane Dehaan, (True Blood), Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan and Ashley Hinshaw, as well as Michael Kelly (The Adjustment Bureau).
The picture was shot on location in and around Cape Town (including the city centre to shoot ground-breaking stunt and visual effects sequences where the superheroes imploded or “threw’ vehicles into buildings.
“It is extremely gratifying when all the hard work delivers something remarkable that audiences worldwide want to see.’ says David Wicht, CEO of Film Afrika Worldwide, “This is yet again a testament to the quality of our crews, the attraction of world class studios (Cape Town Film Studios), and the versatility of Cape Town as a location, and without the fantastic support we received from the city at all levels, this film would not have been possible. In addition, the Department of Trade and Industry’s recent decision to lift the cap on its Production Incentive Scheme has markedly increased the attraction to filming in and with South Africa.’
Also in Cape Town, Film Afrika Worldwide has just completed Labyrinth for Tandem Communications and Ridley Scott’s production company, Scott Free Films.
Overseas, Chronicle also claimed the No. 1 spot in a number of international markets, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong.
