Property Reporter

ONE of the world's top film studio architects is designing Dreamworld, the Hollywood-style film studio in Faure, Western Cape.

Scott Carter, who designed the Disney stages in Los Angeles among others and is rated by Hollywood as the best, has been chosen to design Dreamworld, says Mike MacCarthy, a director of the Dreamworld consortium that has been named by the Western Cape government as their preferred bidder.

"We went to Hollywood and got the best man we could find," says MacCarthy.

The Disney stages are considered to be among the best film stages in world.

Carter will be working in concert with local architects Stauch Vorster, who work in association with ACG Architects. "He will do the master design and the local architects, knowing the local conditions, will implement it,"

MacCarthy says.

It was recently announced that construction of Dreamworld was set to go ahead, with Western Cape having given the developers the nod to proceed early last month.

Kurt Gouwsventer, regional manager of JHI Real Estate in Bellville, who sold the land, says the Dreamworld consortium purchased the 194ha site on an "option and sale" basis in 2002, and had been awaiting the outcome of the local government's call for proposals to build a film studio in Cape Town.

Gouwsventer says 13 potential investors submitted proposals and by late last year government had whittled these down to three bidders. Government confirmed early last month that Dreamworld, of which South African producer and director Anant Singh is the chairman, was the preferred bidder.

The cost of the project is estimated at R450m- R500m. The provincial government and the City of Cape Town will contribute R60m over the next three years. The film industry in Western Cape is worth about R2bn a year.

The land for the site was a portion of the Vergenoegd wine estate owned by the Faure family.

Gouwsventer says plans for construction of the studio began seven years ago, when he received a call from MacCarthy asking him to find an ideal site for the project.

"His brief to JHI Bellville was that the location should comprise 80ha to 100ha of land in the beautiful surroundings of Western Cape, with potential for expansion.

Another major requirement was that it should be convenient to Cape Town International Airport and the Cape Town CBD, placing it within easy reach of future clients and the labour force.

Gouwsventer is confident that the film studio one of the biggest developments in SA would bring many positive benefits to local communities and to Cape Town.

MacCarthy says phase one of the project will include the construction of eight sound stages, a state-of-theart post-production complex, music recording facilities for soundtracks, an office complex for the production companies that will come into the film city development, as well as a film industrial park that will be home to the supply organisations that feed into the film industry, such as set builders, costume makers, light suppliers, car hire companies and engineering workshops.

MacCarthy says a separate development called a back lot will also be built.

"Those are standing sets," he explains, "and we plan to build famous cities which are seen often on the screen."

MacCarthy says the cities to be recreated on back lots will include New York, Paris, Rome, London, Berlin as well as an early Cape Town. "These will be quite substantial sites and we hope they will be an incentive to film producers, international and local, to use the facilities."

MacCarthy says SA as a location is still cost-competitive against major centres. Many US films have been shot in England, but the production values in SA are comparable with the UK.

MacCarthy says the consortium has received a great deal of support. Even before its presentation to local government "we got letters of support and interest from a wide spectrum of international brand names in the global film industry".

The studio will be financed through a combination of funding from institutions, government and private investor groups.