Danny Boyle is not slowing down. With all kinds of Sunshine going on, he’s jumped into the pilot’s seat for the architectural biography Ponte Tower. And by architectural, I actually mean thriller set in the Joburg landmark.
The landmark itself has a fascinating history and plays into all kinds of American themes like sprawl, immigration and the suburban fear of "there goes the neighborhood".
The Ponte Tower was constructed in the 70’s as low cost housing consisting of a mini-community with fully furnished apartments, but had such great views and was so aesthetically unique, it became a hot-spot for Joburg’s Yuppie denizens. As the city began to grow outward in the mid 80’s, residents packed up and moved to the next hot spot, vacating Ponte Tower and the once-cool Hillbrow area. The vacuum and real estate collapse changed the demographic and introduced vacated, trash-strewn streets and 90’s era drug crime that makes for good movies.
The history and architecture of this place alone piques my interest in the project, and with Boyle travelling to South Africa to develop the project, the story will become tactile very soon.