Publications
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- Following the release of iNumber Number: Jozi Gold on Netflix, creator, writer, and director Donovan Marsh intends to create a franchise of the films.
- iNumber Number: Jozi Gold launched on the streaming giant last week.
- The sequel to iNumber Number (Avenged) stars cop duo Chili (S'dumo Mtshali) and Shoes (Presley Chweneyagae) as they go against their newest enemy, the Hyena Man (Bongile Mantsai).
Just a week after the launch of his latest offering, iNumber Number: Jozi Gold, on streaming giant Netflix, creator, writer and director Donovan Marsh says it is just the beginning of his plans to create a franchise of the films.
iNumber Number: Jozi Gold is the sequel to iNumber Number (Avenged), released 10 years ago.
It stars iconic cop duo Chili (played by S'dumo Mtshali) and Shoes (played by Presley Chweneyagae) as they go against their newest enemy, the Hyena Man (played by Bongile Mantsai).
In iNumber Number (Avenged), Chili and Shoes are cheated out of a large reward by their corrupt superiors, and Chili decides to infiltrate a gang as it prepares to rob an armoured car.
Instead of busting them, Chili ropes Shoes in to participate in the heist.
A labour of love
"I wanted to see if I could make an action genre film in the vernacular [which] hadn't really been done before in that particular style, and I wanted to see if it was possible, on South African budgets, to do something with action that could compare internationally," Marsh said about the making of the first iNumber Number.
He added:At the movie's exclusive screening in Johannesburg last week, Marsh said creating a sequel and bringing the characters back was something he always wanted to do.
However, he added he was adamant if he was going to do it again, it had to be "at the right level".
"I didn't want to ask anyone to do it again for free, more or less, you know; I wanted to do it at the correct budget level, and I kind of had an idea of what I needed to do it," Marsh said.
"In the past 10 years, there also just wasn't a budget to have it made because it's very expensive to make action films or films in a lot of locations."
When Netflix did come on board for the film, he added it was the "ideal fit and the ideal partner to reboot it and make it bigger and better".
The making of movie stars
Marsh and Mtshali crossed paths for the first time on reality competition TV series Class Act, which Marsh created, and Mtshali was a contestant. Mtshali later came out victorious, with Muzi Ngwenya as the runner-up.
"My idea was, 'can't we make African stars in the way that we have Americans have stars? Why can't we have our own action heroes that people go to see?' and I create a TV show looking for that person," he said.
"I've been looking for an opportunity to take it to the next level, but what was required was the right producer and people with the right amount of money; we kept wanting to remake it."
Marsh added:When the streaming giant came on board to support his goal, he knew he wanted to create "something a bit crazy and a bit fun".
"I also wanted to create something that drew from a bunch of different cultures - from Afrikaans to Tswana, to Zulu, Xhosa, to my Western sensibility and create a mish-mash of that to hopefully create something original and different," Marsh said.
"Something that was quite eye-catching when you watched it."
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With the idea of creating something different and an African movie star, he added he took a few risks in how the movie was shot and how the story was told, saying:Seen it all, done it all
Marsh said with the reboot taking place 10 years after the original, Chili and Shoes could not pick up from where viewers last saw them.
"They were younger men 10 years ago - the storyline was suited around these young cops who were trying to find their way in the South African environment, which is not friendly to police and has a lot of temptations in terms of crime.
"So now, they're not young men anymore."
He added:"They try to do the right thing, they try to be honest, but imagining those 10 years where these guys have done everything by the book but not getting the results is what leads Chili to go beyond the law," Marsh said.
Crime doesn't pay
While he does have plans for another sequel, he admits it gets challenging to continue to create something fresh that people will want to watch as audiences "want something extra and something different".
However, with plans of creating a movie franchise, Marsh said he already had plans for where the next iNumber Number movie would kick off.
"It will start in the prison, and it's going to be using all of the stuff we know about prisons in South Africa," he added without giving away too much.
"I think it's uncomfortable when you glorify crime in a film in South Africa. That's why I'm always trying to put a spin on it, and it's always 'crime doesn't pay'."
Marsh said:Completely different
Though iNumber Number: Jozi Gold is Marsh's latest offering, it is not his only film that's available on the streaming giant. His 2021 film, I Am All Girls, is also available on the streaming platform.
"That was a film I made during the lockdown, during Covid, and it's completely different," he said. "It's a very serious, somewhat artistic film about human trafficking looking very seriously at the problem of human trafficking."
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He attributed part of the film's success to the period in which it was released.
"I managed to get into that window where I just managed to shoot it and then edit it while everyone couldn't make movies, and then it came out; it did brilliantly all around the world," Marsh said.
The two films are just some of the ones he has under his belt. Marsh also boasts of being behind Spud, Spud 2, and the Hollywood action film Hunter Killer.
"I spent two years in the United States making that film," he said about Hunter Killer. "We shot in Hawaii, America, Bulgaria and London. It was an amazing experience, but it turned out they actually wanted something more conventional, so that was a bit of a jostle trying to work it out."
Humbling experiences
Reflecting on his filmmaking experiences, he said it had been humbling.
"I've had films that fail, I've had films that have succeeded beyond my wildest imagination, and it's very humbling; making films is extremely humbling," Marsh added, saying:""If you think you can just do it easily or quickly, you can't; movies take years to make," he said.
iNumber Number: Jozi Gold and I Am All Girls are streaming on Netflix.
