With the success of Netflix’s One Piece, it is clear that the South African film industry has really made its mark on the international stage. One Piece was filmed primarily at Cape Town Film Studios, located in Faure and founded in 2010.
The live-action adaptation of the manga chose Cape Town because of our diverse landscapes and coastal scenery, perfect for the destination-hopping pirate crew of the series, as well as our strong film industry infrastructure and cost efficiency.
However, One Piece is only one of many international productions that have been filmed in South Africa. While the South African film industry is certainly facing its struggles in recent years, it is evident that we are becoming a great destination for Hollywood productions.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure
The third film in the Maze Runner trilogy filmed many of its scenes in Cape Town. The 2018 film was made in collaboration with Cape Town studios, with filming taking place from March to June 2017.
It was quite an interesting framing, with the characters describing a fictional city as the last safe place on Earth, with South African audiences pleasantly surprised to see the Mother City be used for the setting.
The intense action scenes for the film’s climax took place in the CBD, with the CTICC standing in for the in-universe WCKD Tower.
Good Omens
Good Omens is a series produced by Prime Video in collaboration with the BBC. The three-season series is based on the 1990 fantasy novel, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
While the series is primarily shot in the UK, a few scenes were filmed in Cape Town for various global settings. Given the biblical subject matter of the series, Cape Town Film Studios provided the settings for the Garden of Eden and Noah’s Ark scenes.
The Cascade Country Manor in Paarl also served as a location for the Garden of Eden sequences, as well as the Atlantis Dunes being used for desert scenes.
Black Sails
Cape Town Film Studios is known for its construction of large ship sets, with the STARZ pirate series, Black Sails (2014-2017), filming all four of its seasons primarily in the Mother City’s studio.
While the series takes place in the Caribbean, the production used the studios’ specialised water tanks and built elaborate sets for the town of Nassau and pirate ships to create the series’ gritty, realistic 18th-century setting.
Additional scenes were also filmed in various parts of the Western Cape, including forest areas near Knysna and coastal areas along the Garden Route.
The Kissing Booth trilogy
Years before One Piece went into production, Netflix filmed the Kissing Booth movies (2018-2021) in South Africa. The trilogy of romantic-comedy films took place in Los Angeles, but the filming took place primarily in Cape Town, with the similar weather and beaches being the perfect stand-in for the California city.
The University of Cape Town was used for the high school in which the main characters attend, with several local actors portraying supporting characters at the school. Several beach scenes were filmed at Camps Bay, and the home scenes for the Flynn family were filmed in Hout Bay.
Several other Hollywood films were filmed in South Africa, with some canonically taking place here, while others used our landscape as a stand-in for real or fictional cities in the US or UK. These titles include:
- Chronicle (2012)
- Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
- Blended (2014)
- The Woman King (2022)
- Outlander (2014-)
- Raised by Wolves (2019-2022)
- The Crown (2016-2023)
Also Read:
Picture: Cottonbro Studio / Pexels
