Arnold Vosloo returns with ‘Plan B’

Action and drama. Humour and fully-fledged, colourful characters born from the imagination of bestselling crime writer Deon Meyer, transformed into a script by the Hertzog Prize winner Tertius Kapp. Jozua Malherbe is in the director’s chair, and the producers – Scene 23’s Cobus van den Bergh and Tim Theron – are the same team responsible for the film Griekwastad. To top it off, Arnold Vosloo is seen again in his mother tongue. Plan B is undoubtedly a drama series like no other, and the trailer is just an enticing taste.

Plan B tells the story of a man with a military background, Ivan Malan (Tim Theron), and his partner, Paul Schmidt (Arnold Vosloo), who rob a gang boss and steal the Flame Maiden – a painting by the master painter Vermeer worth €30 million. Meanwhile, Ragel Bergh (Amalia Uys) is swindled out of her inheritance by the slick conman Joshua Lansky (Armand Aucamp). All seems lost for her, but then she crosses paths with Ivan and Paul via an art appraiser, and the three of them want the same thing badly: the Flame Maiden.

“To work in South Africa again means I am back among my people, in touch with a language and culture I love,” says Arnold. “Afrikaans is the most beautiful language in the world. Then, of course, to work again with Scene 23, the team from Griekwastad is a pleasure. Cobus, Tim and Jozua are like brothers to me. We understand each other.”

“To adapt characters created by Deon Meyer in the 1990s for 2024 is not so much a challenge as an opportunity,” says Tertius, who was also responsible for the script of Griekwastad. “Technology has changed drastically, of course. For example, if you try to track someone now, your first port of call will be digital. Another opportunity was a tongue-in-cheek approach to the type of action hero you had in the 1990s and to give the female characters, who were very different in this genre during the 1990s, the scope to transform and evolve.”

“The plan with Plan B was to make a fun-filled action series,” says Jozua. “From the beginning, we talked about sunshine and champagne – the idea that our series should be light and lively.”

“We also wanted to inject a solid dose of nostalgia and innocence like in action series of the 1970s and 1980s: Magnum PI, Starsky and Hutch, and Hawaii Five-O. These are series that have action and suspense and address some serious issues, but are always fun to watch,” says Cobus.

Plan B was filmed in Cape Town and Stellenbosch and surrounding areas, and the locations will take your breath away.

“It was always the plan to film beautiful people, beautiful homes, beautiful cars and beautiful moments,” says Tim. “If you fly over the Stellenbosch Winelands with a helicopter, a world opens up, one you never knew existed. And then you go to the owners with your hat in hand and beg them to let you use their homes for a small fee.”

Arnold, who has lived in America for over 30 years, says he speaks to his sister, Nadia, and his mother, Joyce, at least once a week but admits his Afrikaans was rusty. However, everything changed when he got the role in Griekwastad.

“In preparation, I tuned in to RSG daily to hear Afrikaans every day,” he says. “Sometimes I struggled to find the right Afrikaans word, but now I’m totally back in the saddle.”
• Plan B starts on 6 March at 20:00 on kykNET (DStv channel 144) and will also be available on DStv Stream and Catch Up.