South African producer Kutlwano Ditsele’s Ten30 Pictures is developing a slate of projects to follow on the heels of the Netflix original series “GO!,” which launches globally March 21.
Speaking to Variety in Johannesburg, where the streamer will host the show’s premiere on March 16, Ditsele said this is just the first step for his young production outfit, insisting he plans on turning Ten30 into “the A24 of Africa.”
“The biggest thing is to have an identity that says these stories are different to what’s [already out there],” he said. “Now our job is scaling and looking around the country for filmmakers that are making interesting things and filmmakers that have an interesting voice.”
“GO!” stars Thandolwethu Zondi as Siya “Bolt” Gumede, a young sprinter who’s given a life-changing scholarship to a prestigious school in Johannesburg, only to find that while it’s one thing to achieve success on the track, it’s much harder to outrun the past. The six-part series was created by Ditsele and head writer Thuli Zuma, whose credits include the hit Showmax original “The Wife.” The show is directed by Tristan Holmes, who won an Academy Award in 2006 for his student film “Elalini.”
The series marks the veteran producer’s return to TV after a brief hiatus, with Ditsele — whose credits include the hit MultiChoice dramas “Gomora” and “The Herd” — stressing his determination to “find a way to make the business work for me.”
His previous work, which included a stint at top Johannesburg production house the Bomb Shelter, was almost entirely built on a commissioning model that’s become increasingly challenging in South Africa’s difficult economic climate. Instead, Ditsele said he asked himself: “How do we start shifting what I’m able to do and start having some ownership in it?”
To do so required the buy-in of private investors, rather than pre-licensing agreements with broadcasters or streaming platforms that would wrest away both ownership and creative control. With “GO!,” Ditsele set a $1 million budget for the six episodes, an amount that would allow his backers to turn a tidy profit if a buyer like Netflix came calling. (It did — literally, when Ditsele says the streamer’s former content head in Africa picked up the phone, telling him: “Don’t speak to anybody else. We want this show.”)
Just as importantly, Ditsele knew he could pitch that budget to investors in the banking and mining sectors whose portfolios regularly include investments in the millions — if not billions — of rand. “The budget level that I’m speaking about doesn’t necessarily scare them,” he said.
Having sold “GO!” to Netflix in what he described as the “pilot phase” of his long-term project, Ditsele and his investors are now targeting a 250 million rand ($13.7 million) funding round that would allow Ten30 to dramatically ramp up its operations.
The company’s slate currently includes the medical drama “Clinical,” which follows six young interns navigating personal and professional dramas in the high-stakes world of South Africa’s most prestigious public hospital; and the road drama “Imbali ne iNkabi,” a story of romance, redemption and survival that follows a contract killer sent to take out his childhood sweetheart. A second season of “GO!” is also in development.
In building out the slate at Ten30 — which reflects his goal to have a catalog of 30 titles in the next 10 years — Ditsele said he’s looking for filmmakers who are willing to take risks, telling them: “The first thing that I want you to send me is all the projects that the networks said ‘no’ to.”
It’s a model that again draws inspiration from America’s leading indie shop. “All the things that likely wouldn’t have been greenlit by anybody else get greenlit by A24. You start finding interesting voices in that way,” he said.
Ditsele, who’s represented by Talitha Watkins, a co-founder with Issa Rae and Deniese Davis of the management and production company ColorCreative, isn’t limiting his creative scope to South Africa: He’s currently attached to a “massive show” with a U.S. studio, alongside “GO!” co-creator Zuma.
Kutlwano Ditsele
Courtesy of Ten30 Pictures
Working in the Hollywood system, he said, has allowed him to think and create on “a completely different scale” than what he can accomplish back home. “You’re able to do something a lot bigger, a lot more global.” It also means working with a not-inconsiderable American checkbook attached.
For the time being, though, Ditsele said Ten30 “occupies a little space that allows networks to engage with us in a space that could be exciting. And I think ‘GO!’ is the perfect example,” he added. “We believe that we can make great work. We’ll take the risk.”
The Joburg Film Festival runs March 11 – 16.
