our Cheetahs thank you

My parents rented the movie one night, fell in love with it and bought it for my little nieces. We all watched it together tonight. Loved the movie! Beautiful scenery (South Africa has a very special place in our hearts, we lived there years ago, love the country and its people!) The animal scenes were amazing and loved the work of Eamonn Walker and Alex Michaeletos. The cheetahs were gorgeous! Wish there were more movies like this. Will keep an eye out for the Snapple Tea ad.

Just saw the movie on tv here in Portugal. Really liked it. Congratulations to everyone who worked on it. It reminded me of another great movie that i really like, Fly Away Home, with Anna Paquin. So I went to see its Imdb entry and guess what: it's by the same director!!! I guess I gotta see his other movies.



"All we really need to survive is one person who truly loves us."

Hello,

Thank you for the kind wishes for 2007, the same to you and yours ;-)

Our cheetahs are not currently on view to visitors but we do hope that will change in 2007 as we are building new cheetah facilities on my son's farm, close to us here in Pietermaritzburg. At the new place we can introduce the two boys to the two young ladies that have been growing here this past two years. If you are in the area though, give me a call and we'll try to work something out.

That's a good idea about the national tourism board !

Regarding all the movies we have made over the past 25 years..... I think Duma was the first one that we REALLY had high hopes for. A lot of animal films, and especially 'AFRICA' films have such bad scripts and lame storylines that bear little resemblence to the realities or complexities of conservation issues in Africa as a whole and southern Africa in particular... there are not that many of ours that I would recommend ;-)

Carroll Ballard really took the time to look around and find those places that most filmmakers don't bother to go looking for, quite a special man.

We thought 'Running Free' might make it but most of the lion work ended up on the cutting room floor - there was a shot we did in it with a lion cub playing with the nose of the hero horse,under a tree in the desert that was quite beautiful, but that was never seen. Half the work our colleagues did with oryx and horses didn't make it into what turned out to be a fairly mediocre film.

'Gods II' was special because the Director, the late Jamie Uys, was one of a kind and understood Africa and African people. He was also working with his own money so he just did what pleased him and accounted to nobody but himself.

We just did a French/Australian co-production called 'Elephant Tales' that we are really pleased with, but it seems destined to follow 'Duma' into obscurity ! It had a release in France that wasn't well publicised and will now probably go to DVD and TV.

Craig & Zelie Bullen, the friends that worked with us on 'Elephant Tales', were also on 'Charlottes Web' training pigs, I hear that worked out well ?

We do a lot of TV commercials that we are quite proud of, at least they ALL make it onto the TV ;-) One we did for 'Perrier' with our male lion 'Jock' in 1991 won the Grande Prix at Cannes that year, making it the 'best in the world' for whatever that was worth ;-)

Most people would cringe if they saw the quality of writing that passes for a script these days. It's usually about a little country called "Africa" and involves the novel idea of a European/American Vet who comes to Africa to save the wildlife. All the black people belong to one tribe and live in mudhuts, all the white people are conservationists or poacher/racists. We long for the day when someone will write a good animal script but, when you see what happens to nice little films like 'Duma', we understand why Producers would rather put their money into 'Christmas with the Kranks, part 4' or yet another sequel/prequel/re-make of an old classic that never needed re-making in the first place !

Ahhhhhhh well, the movie business - I do love it really ;-)

Let's see what 2007 brings us !

again, very best to you and yours

Jim

Hi there,

Thanks for the kind words about 'Duma' - it really is a shame more people didn't see it, I agree will all you say about MTV/Jackass and hip-hop dancing ;-)

Regarding 'Bongo' - I know the people at Olmense and there is no chance they will take it out on the animals. None. It was a silly tragic accident. The woman mis-read the animals and was in the wrong place (their home) at the wrong time (at night, unannounced) - it's still the only fatal attack case I know of involving a cheetah.

I finally saw this film that never made it to our neighborhood on initial release. Several major critics in the US decried the fact that WB so shamelessly dumped this beautiful film into the back wash. It is absolutely marvelous.
You can all be very proud of this effort-- a film that I know is being recommended by several of my friends who work in a video store. It's the perfect film to suggest to families with bright youngsters.
What a positive message it sends-- to kids and grownups alike.
I rented it this time--- but I think I may purchase a copy.
Hope you wonderful folk are suitably rewarded by the wonderful animals whose futures you are helping to guarantee!!

jhb-4