Huge turn out at A United Kingdom extras auditions
Dumisani Ncube | Tuesday September 29, 2015 11:25
A United Kingdom will depict the love story of Sir Seretse Khama and Lady Ruth Khama.
More than 200 people showed up for the auditions. Four thousand extras are needed for this historical movie. Among the hopefuls were some familiar faces such as comedians, Prince Macheng and Umbambi ‘Bambino’ Ndiwenyu.
The auditions attracted individuals from different age groups. Many of the aspiring extras had anticipated that they would be given a chance to present their acting skills, but that did not happen at the auditions. Aspirants only registered their details, body measurements and took headshots photographs. Arthur January explained that in these auditions they are mainly looking for extras “mainly people who will be in the background scenes”.
January said the storyline of the movie does not have many vernacular speaking roles for Batswana.
“We try to be authentic as much as possible to events that happen between Sir Seretse Khama and Ruth Khama,” he said. “It’s a love story. It shows the controversy, which was brought about by the relationship.” There is a pool of local actors who have already been selected to take some main roles for the A United Kingdom movie.
“At the moment I cannot mention which actors have selected. We will only be releasing their names in a week or so,” he said.
In the coming days, the aspiring extras will be notified if they have qualified for the movie roles.
Shooting for the movie will start on October 10 in London. Later, it will be shot in Palapye, Old Palapye and Serowe. The entire filming will be wrapped in November this year and post-production will be concluded in June next year. The movie will be released in September next year.
Other auditions were held in Serowe and Palapye this past week. The Gaborone auditions were the last ones. January said 2,000 people auditioned in all the centres. The lead actor and actress roles will be played by Nigerian, David Oyelowo (Khama), and Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike (Ruth).
The director of the movie is Amma Asante and the producer is Rick Nccallum.
European film production company, Pathe UK, will be shooting the movie. They have shot movies such as Slum Dog Millionaire, Mandela’s Long Walk To Freedom and Selma.