“Hollywood Coming Soon”: Inside Durban’s R7.5bn Film City Project With Presidential Backing

• Durban Film City, a long-delayed studio complex, received a major boost when President Cyril Ramaphosa publicly backed the project at a national infrastructure summit
• The proposed R7.5 billion development is earmarked for a 21-hectare site opposite the Moses Mabhida Stadium and could create over 50,000 jobs
• Despite the presidential endorsement, no timeline has been set and the site still faces unresolved water and sanitation challenges

Durban Film City, a Hollywood-style studio complex nearly two decades in the making, has received its biggest endorsement yet from President Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa eyes a larger share of the global film industry.

The project, the brainchild of acclaimed South African filmmaker Anant Singh, is earmarked for the 21-hectare Natal Command site directly opposite the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. According to the latest Construction Book published by Infrastructure South Africa, the studio will require R7.5 billion to become operational.

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Ramaphosa puts weight behind Durban's film ambitions

Speaking at the 2026 Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium, Ramaphosa drew a direct comparison to Cape Town's existing film economy.

"A single film season brings in $200 million in revenue, which is every year in Cape Town. So, we need to open another studio here."

Singh has been championing this vision since the early 2000s, outlasting multiple government ministers along the way. Once operational, Durban Film City is projected to generate more than 50,000 temporary and permanent jobs, and Singh maintains that Durban already holds its own in film and entertainment despite having almost no dedicated studio infrastructure.

Construction still faces hurdles on the ground

Despite the high-profile backing, the road ahead is far from straightforward. The most recent project update from mid-2026 shows only a site framework plan in place. Bulk infrastructure still requires significant upgrading, electricity was only reconnected to the old Natal Command building in April 2025, and water and sanitation services remain blocked due to an unresolved rates dispute.

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No firm construction timeline has been announced. The National Treasury has committed R1.07 trillion for public infrastructure spending between 2026 and 2029, spread across transport, energy, municipal and social projects, but Ramaphosa's stated priority is ensuring that projects already under way are actually completed rather than stalling mid-construction. Infrastructure South Africa has since been required to publish quarterly performance reports for all tracked projects.

Read the South African post here.

What South Africans are saying

Reactions online were a mixed bag of scepticism, nostalgia and cautious excitement on the page:

@Jean-Paul Dutreuilh said:

"They've been saying: Coming Soon since 2005."

@Arjun Singh commented:

"Prime location, but not for a movie studio. A movie studio should be on the outskirts, in a light industrial area, like Mount Edgecombe or Cornubia."

@Michaelin Naraidu shared:

"I saw the sign boards on fences near Suncoast saying Hollywood coming soon."

@Kevin Moodley noted:

"They got bigger things to do before building a film city... clean the city first."

@Mikhail Peppas said:

"Admirable cinematic momentum in cultural entrepreneurship."

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Source: Briefly News