by Thinus Ferreira
Paramount Africa's cash-crashed telenovela Queendom on BET Africa
which was forced to shutter at the end of May has lurched back into filming
while Paramount executives and producers refuse to come clean about the
behind-the-scenes upheaval that left the telenovela's cast and crew unpaid for
months.
Paramount Africa was forced to switch to repeats of Queendom from
22 July, just four months after its debut on BET Africa (DStv 129) after
Clive Morris Productions ran out of money to film and even to pay cast and
crew.
New episodes of Queendom will now start on 23 September with no
explanation from Paramount Africa or Clive Morris Productions where the money
came from to restart the embattled production that saw cast and crew forced to
sell possessions to buy food while a crew member couldn't pay for a parent's funeral after a funeral policy lapsed due to non-payment.
Paramount Africa and BET Africa boss Monde Twala
are remaining silent on the unpaid crew and cast production scandal of Clive
Morris Productions' Queendom.
Monde Twala, Paramount Africa senior
vice president and general manager and BET International lead, didn't
respond to an interview request made a week ago through Paramount's South
African PR firm Total Exposure.
A media query with questions to Paramount Africa,
also made last Wednesday through Total Exposure has also been ignored.
Clarity was sought from Paramount Africa on when
filming for Queendom restarted and until when filming will continue, where the
bridge financing now came from, who sourced the financing, how many more
episodes will be produced, as well as how many of the former and original cast
and crew have been able to return and who are no longer available.
Natalie Mdladla, Paramount senior director
of communications, likewise ignored a media query in August seeking answers on
why Paramount Africa allowed filming to start on a production before the money
to make a show for BET Africa was 100% secured.
She was also asked who at
Paramount authorised pre-production and principal photography to start, and why
Paramount again worked with CMP after the same cash issue caused a shutdown of
ISONO.
According to Paramount Africa "Queendom
makes a regal return on 23 September at 18:30 with a royal showdown as Prince
Andile finally confronts his brother King Banzi about the throne".
The
show that has been airing reruns in the timeslot will resume with four new
episodes weekly from 23 September from Mondays to Thursdays.
Linda Mtoba in the role of Ntando is one of the
cast returning to the show, noting in a press statement that she is
"thrilled that Queendom is returning to screens this September, taking the
drama and intrigue to a whole new level, and I can't wait for fans to see how
these powerful storylines unfold."
Other crew and actors have quit and left like
Sindi Dlathu and Themba Ndaba who signed up for e.tv's Isipetho produced by
Black Brain Pictures, while Queendom cast and crew have still not been paid in
full the overdue money they're owed.
In the statement, Monde Twala, who was seen
hosting a cocktail party for producers last week at the MIP Africa 2024 TV
market in Cape Town, only notes that "Local content is an important pillar
for our audiences and we are committed to meeting this demand with impactful storytelling
that resonates on a global scale".
Cascade failure explained
After the Queendom implosion, MultiChoice has
also taken away Empini – done for its Showmax video streaming service by
Clive Morris Productions – where crew members also went unpaid and reassigned
it to Crystal Pics and Nomusa Mzima to complete the 52-episode series.
Queendom started out as a co-production,
with BET responsible for half of the investment, which was fulfilled by BET
Africa and Clive Morris Productions responsible for the other 50%.
According to CMP, a backer pulled out that would
have paid its 50% towards the production costs, but it's unclear why
pre-production and filming started before the funding was fully paid over.
Insiders told TVwithThinus that the trifecta of MultiChoice,
Paramount Africa and Clive Morris Productions (CMP) should all share the blame
for what happened to Queendom and the dire and shocking financial situation it
plunged the show's committed cast and crew into.
According to them, the Queendom cascade implosion
happened like this: MultiChoice placed tremendous pressure on Paramount Africa
to maintain a contractual local content quota for BET Africa whereby Paramount
must produce and air a number of local hours per year on the channel.
Paramount Africa, under pressure to adhere to its
local content contract with MultiChoice or face stiff penalities, went ahead to
strip local hours of Queendom which it allowed CMP to start producing, even
though CMP didn't have all the money for the production in the bank.
Clive Morris Productions, which wanted to retain
a stake in the ownership of Queendom, started filming the series despite not
having its share of co-funding in the bank account, after which a funder
suddenly decided to no longer invest in the show.
This derailed and collapsed production
of Queendom when Clive Morris Productions, after filming had already
started, failed to get the money required when the investor no longer wanted to
pay.
In mid-April – by which time Paramount Africa was
well aware that CMP had funding issues, that Queendom was struggling and that
the cast and crew were not getting the paid – Paramount Africa and BET went
ahead to launch Queendom with a splashy media event at Kings Kraal in
Bryanston, Johannesburg for some media.
Behind-the-scenes however, the Queendom
cast and crew who were putting up a brave face, were already angry and
distraught over the impossible production conditions, delayed payments, as well
as Clive Morris Productions' ongoing promises that they would get paid.
"Typically shows like telenovelas and soaps
are commissioned by TV channels and financed 100% by the
channel. Queendom wasn't," a producer on the show explained.
"Clive Morris Productions entered into a
deal where an onus was on them to raise a significant portion of the production
costs, which are far too onerous for most producers. Very few production
companies, if any, would be able to raise that capital for a show of this size
like Queendom."
"I had never heard of such
an arrangement in the context of a telenovela. They exist for films or a very
short miniseries. Prior to any minute of any footage being filmed all the money
should have been in the bank. That wasn't the case, hence we find ourselves in
the position we're in."