- Queendom resumes filming on 23 September, but Paramount Africa and Clive Morris Productions remain silent on the source of new funding.
- Cast and crew faced severe financial hardships, with some selling belongings to afford food and one unable to pay for a parent’s funeral.
- Paramount Africa and BET Africa executive Monde Twala has not responded to media inquiries about the unpaid cast and crew scandal.
Paramount Africa’s financially troubled telenovela Queendom on BET Africa, which was forced to halt production at the end of May, has resumed filming. However, Paramount executives and producers remain tight-lipped about the behind-the-scenes turmoil that left the cast and crew unpaid for months.
Due to financial constraints, Paramount Africa switched to reruns of the telenovela on 22 July, just four months after its debut on BET Africa (DStv 129). This decision came after Clive Morris Productions exhausted its funds, leaving them unable to continue filming.
New episodes of Queendom are set to air starting 23 September. However, neither Paramount Africa nor Clive Morris Productions have provided any explanation regarding the source of the funds used to revive the troubled production. During the hiatus, cast and crew members faced severe financial hardships, with some forced to sell personal belongings to afford food. Tragically, one crew member was unable to pay for a parent’s funeral after their funeral policy lapsed due to non-payment.
Monde Twala, who serves as Paramount Africa’s senior vice president and general manager, as well as the lead for BET International, has not responded to an interview request made a week ago through Paramount’s South African PR firm, Total Exposure.
READ | Queendom crumbles: Clive Morris Productions fails to pay cast and crew as Showmax reassigns Empini
A media inquiry with questions directed to Paramount Africa, submitted last Wednesday through Total Exposure, has also gone unanswered.
Inquiries were made to Paramount Africa seeking clarity on several points: the restart date for Queendom filming, the expected duration of the new filming schedule, the source and provider of the bridge financing, the number of additional episodes to be produced, and the status of the original cast and crew—specifically, how many have returned and who are no longer available.
According to Paramount Africa, “Queendom makes a regal return on 23 September at 18:30 with a royal showdown as Prince Andile finally confronts his brother King Banzi about the throne.” The show will resume with four new episodes weekly from 23 September from Mondays to Thursdays.
Linda Mtoba, in the role of Ntando, is one of the cast returning to the show, noting in a press statement that she is “thrilled that Queendom is returning to screens this September, taking the drama and intrigue to a whole new level, and I can’t wait for fans to see how these powerful storylines unfold.”
Several crew members and actors, including Sindi Dlathu and Themba Ndaba, have quit and moved on to other projects, such as e.tv’s Isiphetho produced by Black Brain Pictures. Meanwhile, the cast and crew of Queendom have yet to receive the full overdue payments they are owed.
In the statement, Twala notes that, “Local content is an important pillar for our audiences and we are committed to meeting this demand with impactful storytelling that resonates on a global scale”.
Cascade failure explained
After the Queendom implosion, MultiChoice has also taken away Empini – done for its Showmax video streaming service by Clive Morris Productions – where crew members also went unpaid and reassigned it to Crystal Pics and Nomusa Nzima to complete the 52-episode series.
Queendom started out as a co-production, with BET responsible for half of the investment, which was fulfilled by BET Africa and Clive Morris Productions responsible for the other 50%.
According to CMP, a backer pulled out that would have paid its 50% towards the production costs, but it’s unclear why pre-production and filming started before the funding was fully paid over.
Insiders told News24 that the trifecta of MultiChoice, Paramount Africa and Clive Morris Productions (CMP) should all share the blame for what happened to Queendom and the dire and shocking financial situation it plunged the show’s committed cast and crew into.
According to them, the Queendom cascade implosion happened like this: MultiChoice placed tremendous pressure on Paramount Africa to maintain a contractual local content quota for BET Africa whereby Paramount must produce and air a number of local hours per year on the channel.
Paramount Africa, under pressure to adhere to its local content contract with MultiChoice or face stiff penalties, went ahead to strip local hours of Queendom, which it allowed CMP to start producing, even though CMP didn’t have all the money for the production in the bank.
READ MORE | ‘Women can do it all’: Linda Mtoba beams with pride at the star-studded launch of new show Queendom
Clive Morris Productions, which wanted to retain a stake in the ownership of Queendom, started filming the series despite not having its share of co-funding in the bank account, after which a funder suddenly decided to no longer invest in the show.
By mid-April, Paramount Africa was fully aware of Clive Morris Productions’ funding issues. Despite this, Paramount Africa and BET proceeded with a lavish media launch for Queendom at Kings Kraal in Bryanston, Johannesburg, attended by select media. Behind the scenes, however, the cast and crew of Queendom were already angry and distraught, putting on a brave face while grappling with impossible production conditions, delayed payments, and ongoing promises from Clive Morris Productions that they would eventually be compensated.
“Typically, shows like telenovelas and soaps are commissioned by TV channels and financed 100% by the channel. Queendom wasn’t,” a producer on the show explained.
“Clive Morris Productions entered into a deal where an onus was on them to raise a significant portion of the production costs, which are far too onerous for most producers. Very few production companies, if any, would be able to raise that capital for a show of this size like Queendom.”
“I had never heard of such an arrangement in the context of a telenovela. They exist for films or a very short miniseries. Prior to any minute of any footage being filmed all the money should have been in the bank. That wasn’t the case. Hence, we find ourselves in the position we’re in.”
