So we’ve managed to get extra info on this Clifton Shores project and it looks like (thankfully) the promo that was spotted online was shot over 17 months ago and was supposed to be seen as a call for castings when the show was casting over a year ago. I’m told that the current show looks nothing like it and only one person in the original promo survived to the final show. Hmm, interesting. And apparently the show has nothing to do with MTV, Jersey Shore or any of the other speculative stories out there.

Check out the press release below:

Clifton Shores Brings Cape Town To The World

Cape Town, 25 February 2011: Since January, Cape Town has been abuzz with excitement over the development of a new unscripted drama series, Clifton Shores, currently being filmed in and around the Mother City. The series is the first of its kind to be produced locally, and follows in the footsteps of other popular international series such as Laguna Beach and The Hills. Boasting a crew comprised of some of the industry’s biggest hitters, and shot on state-of-the-art high definition cameras, Clifton Shores is a love letter to Cape Town, exhibiting the city in a way that has never before been seen.

Clifton Shores is the brainchild of Quinton van der Burgh, CEO of Burgh Group Holdings, a broad-spectrum investment holdings company. Van der Burgh, a former executive producer of M-Net’s Sharp Shooter, was eager to establish a new and exotic location for US audiences, one that he regards as one of the top 5 playground cities in the world. “The success of the 2010 World Cup really opened up the market for South Africa. Cape Town is a perfect location as it offers the best of both worlds for viewers, with European style and African spirit in equal abundance,” says Van der Burgh.

[Click link to read the rest + extra image..]

The series follows the lives of 4 American women, all with past experience in the industry, who are brought to Cape Town to work for Quintessential, Van der Burgh’s events and marketing company, along with 3 South African women, who serve as their guides to life in a new country. The show tracks their process of cultural adaptation, as they learn to live and work in the South African environment, and promises plenty of glamour, intrigue and drama associated with their work, relationships and friendships along the way. Clifton Shores is directed by Hisham Abed, a prominent figure in the field of unscripted drama, having previously helmed seasons of MTV’s Laguna Beach and The Hills, as well as award winning producer/director Christopher Rowland, who is also the show runner. Rowland has worked on over a hundred productions, amongst them the soon to be released feature film, Darfur, which recently won best film at The New York Film Festival, 2003’s acclaimed biopic, Stander, and big budget TV show Charlie Jade.

Clifton Shores is a proudly South African project, sporting a predominantly local crew and produced by the award winning Clive Morris Productions. The show is a departure for the production company, who agreed to tackle the project on the strength of Van der Burgh’s proposal. “There is always a risk attached to a venture such as this, as there was no local precedent for a series of this nature. However, Quinton van der Burgh exhibited such passion for the show, and demonstrated a willingness to bring on board the very best and brightest in the field in order to ensure the success of the show,” says Clive Morris, CEO of Clive Morris Productions.

Click image to enlarge

The series will showcase the glamorous lifestyle of Cape Town’s rich and fabulous, as the show’s stars mingle with the city’s elite, and become accustomed to life in one of Clifton’s famed cliff-side mansions. Shooting has taken place in some of the city’s hottest spots, as well as further afield for more adventurous activities like shark cage diving, paragliding, safaris and wine land excursions. Genna Lewis, the show’s content producer and brand custodian, says that the crew of 25 or so have had a very positive reception from the people of Cape Town. “We’ve had a wonderful reaction from Capetonians, most of whom have hooked into the fact that this represents a fantastic opportunity for both the city and country alike to gain incredibly favourable exposure on the world stage. It’s a chance for the rest of the world to fall in love with the country, and locals are very keen to show off our many attractions to an international audience,” says Lewis.

Quinton van der Burgh believes that it is vital that the show be sold as an international production, in order to expand the scope of the project, “Shows that are sold as ‘South African’ very rarely tend to gain any exposure beyond the country’s borders. Our goal with this production is to promote Cape Town on a world stage, and secure an international viewership, in order to extend the reach of the show and expand the South African brand globally.”

Production of Clifton Shores will continue for the remainder of Cape Town’s summer season, with filming scheduled to wrap in April.

Nice.

We’ll post up the new promo as soon as we get it 😉