Saturday, September 06, 2014

Tsavo Lions #2


A more recent and much better retelling of the story of the Tsavo lions was The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) which was partially filmed on location in Tsavo National Park in Kenya, not far from where the actual events took place. 

Posted by Buckles at 9/06/2014 05:27:00 AM

4 comments:

Jim Stockley said...

from Jim Stockley:
Actually, none of G&D was filmed in Tsavo. The movie was made here in South Africa at Songimvelo Game Reserve, Mpumalanga Province, not far from the Kruger National Park. 5 lions were used. One from Sled Reynolds & Hubert Wells (USA), two from Michael Hackenberger (Canada) and two from Thierry LePortier (France). Much of it was filmed during the rainy season and a lot of green vegetation can be seen behind the field of dry grass that Patterson sets on fire towards the end (the grass had to be found 100kms away and trucked in for the scene) - We helped import the lions, I provided the baboon for the 'bait' sequence.

07 September, 2014 05:10
Unknown said...

The Internet Move Database (IMDb) entry for THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS lists Tsavo National Park as one of the filming locations. Since it has now been confirmed that none of the principal photography was done there, we must assume that it was the second unit that filmed in the park; probably to obtain the animal footage that was used for the establishing shots and cutaways.

07 September, 2014 10:57
Chic Silber said...


Or IMDB might also be WRONG which

certainly wouldn't be a 1st

"De tings dat yo liable to read in

de Bible It ain't necessarily so"

(George & Ira Gershwin)

07 September, 2014 21:22
Jim Stockley said...

from Jim Stockley: They may have bought some 2nd Unit footage from Simon Trevor but I can't think what shots made it into the movie, maybe some panoramic vistas? Wildlife shots were filmed on set on Songimvelo, we used our African elephants in the opening train shots and supplied the vultures and baboon. The zebra in the hunt sequence was done on set and even the Masaai were flown in. They had so much rain at the end of the shoot, that bridge almost washed away ;-)

08 September, 2014 14:59

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