The Mysterious Cube: A new project breather life into South Africa’s visual entertainment forum and it comes in something rather unique and refreshing. A Fantasy Horror Mystery. Not since District 9 has someone had the courage to deviate from the tried and trust drama’s and soapies.
We had the pleasure of catching up with key player and long-time colleague Tapelo Zama who was instrumental in bringing this gem to life. Check out the synopsis and read the exclusive interview.
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After brothers Thula and Colin stumble upon a mysterious artefact unlike anything they’ve seen before. The pair decides to call in their friend Tshepo, a young programmer and the most knowledgeable person they know, to investigate. But things take a turn for the worst when Tshepo, He is accompanied by his girlfriend Monica, touches the object, setting a string of irreversible events in motion. Under a spell brought on by his exposure to the cube, Tshepo sets off on a mission to unleash a great evil into the world. Meanwhile, Monica’s quest to find answers about the Mysterious Cube draws the attention of a powerful secret society that has long sort it out. Also in the mix is Anne, a mysterious grifter who has her own history with the cube.
Interview
What was the inspiration for bring this project?
There were quite a few inspirations for the project. Mesheck and I are huge nerds and we infused a lot of stuff we like into the series. Shows like DARK, Supernatural, Stranger Things, bit of Hellraiser too, but we really wanted to bring our own African flavour to it.
How did you come up with the characters? Are they Based on real life people or encounters?
It’s a bit of both. Some characters were strongly modelled on people I know or met at some point in my life, some are a bit more archetypal. I’ve had people tell me ome of the characters remind them of people that they know which is great. I do try not to lean to heavily on stereotypes though. People we meet in real life tend to be quite nuanced when we get to know them, so it was important for me to try and add some extra layers to them that make them feel more three dimensional.
Can you tell us the struggles you had to overcome to bring this to life?
It’s been a tough journey for sure. We’re a small indie team, the guys bought their own equipment, we had to pay for everything ourselves, no sponsors, no backing. It was tough. When I was brought onto the project, the guys had just been robbed while shooting the first iteration of The Mysterious Cube in Braamfischer. They had their camera and equipment stolen and half the footage was gone. So to get to this point really took a lot of hard work, a lot grit, a lot of pain.
Which Local cultures are the predominate basis for this adventure?
Interesting question. The show is actually quite a Pan-African mix. From a local perspective, there’s a lot of quasi-Nguni stuff in there, but there’s also a lot of influences from outside South Africa. I’ve always been really fascinated by ancient African history and folklore so there’s all sorts of inspirations and references jammed in there. There’s The Cube which is not only inscribed with Ghanaian Adinkra symbols, its own lore is kind of a mish mash of pan-African civilizations and real life historical figures like Changamire Dombo and Akomfo Anokye. Like I said before, we really wanted to make this an authentically African production.
What type of tone can we expect to see?
I would say it’s a supernatural thriller, there’s a lot of mystery, as you might have guessed from the name (laughs) there’s some horror elements too, but there’s also a bit of comedy and some action so there’s something for everyone.
SA has not really had a franchise, not the one we geeks are used to anyway. Could this be the first of many?
That’s the plan. We’re really hoping that we get to shoot a second season of The Mysterious Cube, there’s still a lot more to unravel with the story, but we also have a lot of other projects in the pipeline that we’re excited to start working on, especially in the sci-fi and fantasy space. We really want to bring something fresh to the local scene by delving more into concepts that you don’t typically see in SA.
Any cool behind the scenes misadventures you can, or area allowed to share with us?
There was an especially hectic day where we were shooting in a Hillbrow building and loadshedding struck. We had to improvise quickly and use hand-held lights and candles to light the scene, but it ended up looking a lot better in the end, so it was actually a blessing in disguise.
Where can we watch this?
The first episode premiered on SABC 1 on Sunday 19:30 last weekend.
What is the next project?
There’s a short film I wrote a few months ago that I can’t wait for us to shoot. That might be the first thing we put out before we move on to the bigger projects. It’s a really cool superhero type story that I think you guys will enjoy so watch this space.
