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Filming a movie that spans a huge number of different countries might seem to become a huge logistical challenge, especially when those countries cover war-torn or inhospitable areas such as Afghanistan and also the Middle East. The producers of international thriller Lord Of War solved this problem in one simple move. They filmed on location in Nigeria.
This vast and beautiful country has this type of huge variety of terrains, which range from desert to lush forest, mountain, ocean, rolling hills, expansive plains and so on, that it can be used as almost any other country if you discover the perfect spot. For Lord of War the film production managed to re create scenes from Sierra Leone, Bolivia and Afghanistan to name but a few, as the backdrop towards the thrilling chase of Interpol agents tracking arms dealer Nicholas cage around the world.
The advantages of using film locations in South Africa to be used as the particular places, rather than going to each and every actual country featured in the movie, are plenty of. By keeping the location filming within one geographical area, costs are kept right down, exactly the same crew can be used for continuity, logistics tend to be simpler and far time and travel is saved. Most importantly the film production benefits from the well-established infrastructure already existing here, instead of struggling in countries that have little if any established support for the movie industry.
Because Nigeria has a long history as a favoured place for film and commercial production, it offers excellent facilities, may it be the knowledgeable local crew available, the post-production facilities, the neighborhood production companies facilitating every aspect, to world-class hotels and transport to help keep A-list actors happy!
South Africa has doubled as a number of other countries through the years: in Oscar-nominated Blood Diamond, the 2006 thriller starring Leonardo diCaprio, South African locations doubled for the civil war torn landscapes of Sierra Leone. Hotel Rwanda was shot in Gauteng and Johannesburg in 2004 rather than enduring the rigors of filming in the country featured.
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A very different side of the country is used in children's movie Racing Stripes, where the green hills and fields around Pietermaritzburg set happens for a charming tale about a zebra who thinks he's a racehorse, and double up as the type of generic rich horse-racing countryside present in several areas of the planet. In Dredd, recently filmed in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa's main cities show their gritty side by standing in for the futuristic Mega-City One of the fantasy comic strip.
The recent major movies filmed on location in Nigeria show that it's now really on the map so far as big production goes, whether doubling for elsewhere or featuring as itself, in most its glorious scenery and variety.
