Production on the film The Bang Bang Club will begin in areas in and around Johannesburg at the end of this month.
Hollywood A-listers Phillippe, the former husband of actress Reese Witherspoon, and Taylor Kitch and Malin Akerman have already signed for the project.
The movie, to be directed by South African documentary producer Steven Silver, will be based on the book of the same name, written by photographers Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva.
Marinovich, played by Phillippe, and Silva formed what was known by their peers as The Bang Bang Club with their late colleagues, Ken Oosterbroek and Kevin Carter.
The four covered the political violence in townships around the country during the late 1980s and early 1990s that made headlines all over the world.
They captured iconic images — like those from the Boipatong and Shell House massacres — that illustrated the brutality inflicted on black South Africans by the police and armed forces, as well as the bloody clashes between African National Congress and Inkatha Freedom Party supporters.
Oosterbroek was shot dead and Marinovich was injured during a gun battle in Tokoza in 1994. Carter committed suicide in the same year after winning the Pulitzer prize for his famous photograph of a Sudanese child and a vulture.
Marinovich also won a Pulitzer for his image of an ANC member hacking to death Lindsaye Tshabalala after he had been set alight.
Marinovich told The Times he was excited that their story is heading for Hollywood.
“I have some mixed feelings because you never know how the movie will turn out. But it is exciting to know our story will be told,” he said.
Silva, who now works for The New York Times, said the movie was another way to “keep the memory of Ken [Oosterbroek] and Kevin [Carter] alive”.
He said turning the book into a film was a “weird experience”, but he would be happy with it as long as it kept to the truth.
“The plan is to guide the producers into bringing a real portrayal of what it was like in those days to the screen. The book was in many ways a token of love for what we went through,” said Silva.
When Marinovich and Silva wrote the book, both thought at the time that it possessed all the qualities of a dramatic film.
Marinovich said he is thrilled with the cast and that both he and Silva will assist with the film’s production.
“We are being consulted on the final script because the producers want it to be authentic,” he said.
Marinovich and Silva will meet the actors before shooting starts to familiarise them with the story’s historical context, and will also show them how they went about their work.
Akerman, who starred in Watchmen, will play a newspaper pictures editor.
A tight-lipped, moody Phillippe landed at OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg yesterday morning. Kitsch and Akerman arrived on Saturday.
Production of the film — based on the book of the same name, about four South African news photographers and written by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva — begins this week.
Yesterday, Phillippe, who plays Marinovich, was unhappy with The Times’s presence at the airport, saying he was amazed there were “paparazzi” in South Africa. He then put his sunglasses on and pulled his woollen hat over his eyes.
“Can you believe that after a 23-hour flight, they are here, and I am so tired,” groaned Phillippe.
Kitsch, who plays the late photographer Kevin Carter, was more forthcoming on Saturday. He said he was looking forward to “being busy on the film and will make time to see the country”.
Akerman’s character is loosely-based on that of The Times’ pictures editor, Robin Comley. The blonde actress said she was anxious to get to work and to spend a day with Comley .
“I have been looking forward to working on this film for more than 18 months,” she said.
Akerman and Kitsch spent Sunday afternoon at Moyo restaurant, at Johannesburg’s Zoo Lake. The Bang-Bang Club is directed by South African-born director Steven Silver, who lives in Canada, and documents the violence of the dying days of apartheid.
The three actors are scheduled to tour the Gauteng townships of Thokoza and Boipatong on Thursday. They will get dialogue coaching from veteran South African actress Fiona Ramsay, who has coached the Hollywood Who’s Who, including Matt Damon, Leonardo di Caprio and Don Cheadle.
HOLLYWOOD actor Ryan Phillippe prepared for his role as a newspaper photographer in the film The Bang Bang Club by taking pictures of his children.
Phillippe has two children — daughter Ava, 10, and son Deacon, 6 — with actress Reese Witherspoon. He and Witherspoon split in 2006.
“I have a bit of skill and I am quite good at taking pictures. Two months ago, I started taking pictures of my kids. So I am proud of the progress I have made although I still have a way to go,” he told The Times.
Phillippe is starring in the film about four South African photographers who covered the bloody political violence in the country’s townships in the run up to the 1994 elections.
Playing the role of Greg Marinovich, Phillippe was on a tour of Thokoza township, east of Johannesburg on Saturday, with fellow cast members Frank Rautenbach, who plays Ken Oosterbroek, Neels van Jaarsveld, who plays Joao Silva, and Malin Akerman, who plays picture editor Robin Comley.
Oosterbroek was killed in a gun battle in Thokoza in 1994. Photographer Kevin Carter, who later committed suicide, is being played by US actor Taylor Kitsch who did not join the rest of the cast as he was having his hair dyed dark brown for the role.
Rautenbach, who played former South African cricket captain in the film Hansie and now lives in Los Angeles, told The Times that ‘‘the film’s preparation has been great for a such a short space of time”.
The 37-year-old from East London, prepared for his role as Oosterbroek by reading The Bang Bang Club, written by Marinovich and Silva, and “watching international footage. “All that is left is to take that and turn it into a performance,” he said.
Rautenbach said Kitsch lost nearly 14kg to play the role of Carter, who was being interviewed for winning a Pulitzer Prize at the time Oosterbroek was shot.
Filming started on Saturday and many scenes are set on Thokoza’s Khumalo Street, which separated IFP-supporting hostel residents from their ANC-aligned neighbours.
Silva, who now works for the New York Times and travels extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq, told them about the day Oosterbroek died and showed them the wall behind which they had hid. He also taught the actors how to hold their cameras like professionals, and not ‘‘like they are taking holiday pictures”.
Phillippe apologised to The Times for giving reporters a frosty reception at OR Tambo International Airport last week, saying he thought the paparazzi had descended.
“ I am sorry, I didn’t know it was you guys from the newspaper ... I thought it was paparazzi. I get that a lot in the US, ” he said.
Bang Bang Club
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Friday’s concert featured superstars Oasis, Panic at the Disco and Snow Patrol, plus local bands Dirty Skirts, and Zebra and Giraffe.
US actor s Malin Akerman, Taylor Kitsch, and Ryan Phillippe and his girlfriend, Abbie Cornish, were also at the event.
Bang Bang Club wraps up production
Nadia Neophytou | Yesterday
The filming of another major international movie has wrapped up in Johannesburg.
The Bang Bang Club is a Canadian/South African co-production which tells the story of four local photographers who documented township violence in the 1980s.
It is an independent film but starred Hollywood actors Ryan Phillipe and Taylor Kitsch.
Director Steven Silver said they worked well with local performers.
“They bonded over having to learn to be photographers and it did not take long for our virtual Bang Bang Club to form on set,” said Silver.
The Globe and Mail is a huge paper as well. I'm so excited the movie is getting press!
Some quotes from Taylor about Kevin Carter & playing him:
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“This role,” adds the actor, “was a dream of mine, yet probably the biggest challenge of my career, but I'm [expletive] spent.”
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“In this movie, there's no such thing as taking a scene off. Each day is so [expletive] intense. But no one is going to put more pressure on me than myself to put the life back into Kev,” he says of the photographer, who committed suicide in 1994. “I want to leave people with way more than an impression of a haggard drug addict. People tend to remember the worst. But I want to bring the life, the laughter, his sense of humour back. When Kev was happy, his smile was ear-to-ear. I'm all over the map with this guy because if you read up on who Kev Carter was, anything goes, really.”
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It will be a long time, he adds, before he begins to really shake Kevin Carter out of his head. “This film isn't just about death – that would be incredibly depressing,” he says. “It's a vindication of what these guys did. They brought this to the surface and made the world sit up and take notice.
“In a sense, The Bang Bang Club is a celebration. What they did took incredible courage. They stepped into situations most others would not, which I guess means they were a little bit crazy. But they really did seek change. They didn't want to be bystanders any more.”
Director Steven Silver on Taylor:
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The movie is Silver's feature-film directorial debut. Having spent the past 20 years making documentaries, primarily in Canada, the 42-year-old says it was Kitsch's performance as the damaged Riggins in Friday Night Lights that convinced him the actor could nail the role of Carter: He had the perfect mix of scruff, machismo and vulnerability the director was seeking.
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“Taylor takes my words and turns them into something that is always new and exciting. I didn't cast look-alikes, but inadvertently they've almost taken the shape of the people they're playing,” he says, adding that even when the cameras stop, the guys stay in character, calling themselves by their scripted names.
“We like to say around here that Ryan is the anchor of the film – the Harvey Keitel of the piece – while Taylor is like a young Robert De Niro in Mean Streets. He's the snap, crackle and pop.”
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Ryan Phillippe’s CarbFace arrived in Nice on Thursday, surprisingly not wearing a beater tank. Am shocked. Ryan is at the festival for The Bang, Bang Club which he’s been shooting in South Africa. He’ll be joined by Canadian co-stars Malin Akerman and – yes! – Taylor Kitsch for advance press and marketing events in support of the film.
The Bang Bang Club is a powerful real life story about four remarkable young men, photographers, friends and rivals who were sometimes banded together to lessen the danger as they covered the violence that erupted in the township of Thokoza in 1994 when the first democratic elections in South African were held.
The grey skies above Cannes and the empty halls of the Marche du Film invite the gloomiest of forecasts as the market closes in on the halfway mark.But despite the empty tables at the Martinez and the blowing tumbleweed atmosphere in the Marche bunker, deals are getting done.
"I know the halls seem empty but the really important people are here," said Charlotte Mickie executive vp international sales and acquisitions at Canada's E1 Entertainment, which have closed some 22 deals so far, including ones for the Ryan Phillippe starrer "The Bang Bang Club" to Paradiso in Belgium and drama "One Week," featuring Joshua Jackson and Campbell Scott, to Ascot Elite for German-speaking Europe.
The company has also completed sales of Michael McGowan’s Toronto title One Week to Ascot Elite for Germany, Switzerland and Austria and the upcoming South Africa-Canada co-production The Bang Bang Club to Falcon Films for the Middle East and Strata Films for Greece.
Admitting that the role was the most challenging he had ever undertaken, Kitsch said he gave everything he had to play Carter.
“I ran 12 to 25 kilometres a day. And to lose so much weight in so little time is unhealthy. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But looking back, I have no regrets. I’m very proud to play him.
In College I studied the Book for Bang Bang Club - and we also studied Kevin Carter. What these guys went through - was amazing, tragic and inspiring as well. This is why I am so stoked about this film and really hope that they release it soon - and in a theater for me to see it on the big screen. Truly, this story deserves a theatrical release.
When Taylor takes on a role, it seems he puts his entire being into it - and I am exctied to see him bring Carter to life.
TKBelle
01-08-2010 11:33 AM
TFTNT, bb. :hug: I still can't believe he ran 8+ miles a day. That's crazy. Such dedication and hardwork. :sigh:
Poupa
01-09-2010 07:49 AM
I hope everyday we keep getting something new. I haven't got anything new in my email concerning the site I emailed though :/
I hope we get some info soon and a poster with Taylor on it :love:
Poupa
01-10-2010 09:29 AM
Thanks for the poster, girls :hug: It's great reading Tay's name on the poster. I can't help but want more info on the release date and the movie promotion status.
TKBelle
01-10-2010 09:49 AM
Awesome posters. I wish we could get more info, like a release date.
kokonutPrincess88
01-10-2010 10:46 PM
I hope we hear something soon.
Hermione Weasley
01-11-2010 12:18 AM
I was just going to ask if there was any release date yet
