Monkey Business For Icon Films

A Bristol-based factual indie company, Icon Films, has been commissioned by National Geographic Channels International (NGCI), Smithsonian Networks and Granada International to produce an animal docu-soap, Street Monkeys.
The 5x60" series follows the story of wild vervet monkeys as they adapt to life in the suburbs of Durban, South Africa.
Vervets, one of Africa's most widespread primates, once had the run of the bush and jungles of South Africa.
But due to a booming human population, the Vervets' natural territory is rapidly transforming from grassy scrubland and impenetrable bush, to manicured lawns and uniform streets.
At Durban's Mount Edgecombe estate, a luxury housing project, two separate groups of Vervets, the Pani Bush Troop and The Sugar Cane Gang, provide an illustration of a Darwinian principal: "To survive in their utterly transformed environment, they must adapt".
Filmed over the course of a year, Street Monkeys weaves the diverse and varied personalities of the monkey troops into a rich tapestry of internal affairs, backstabbing politics and hierarchies.
"Vervet behaviour is incredibly complex, varied and very entertaining, theirs is a world that isn’t quite as comfortably removed from our own as we'd like," said Harry Marshall, Icon Films' Chief Executive Officer.
"The big picture is that both the monkeys and the humans on the estate have had to adapt to live cheek by jowl, because whether the new residents like it or not, vervets are protected by South African law.
"But like humans, a vervet's own worst enemy is often themselves, because now they've got time to kill their behaviour is adapting to battling internal political differences and gang rivalries on a Sopranos-like scale.
"In many ways the series is holding a mirror up to human society and it can sometimes be uncomfortable, albeit hilarious, viewing for us super primates.
"Street Monkeys is endearing; these mischievous monkeys have distinctive personalities that leap off the screen," said Sydney Suissa, Executive Vice President of Content for NGCI.
"This is wildlife programming with attitude - a wonderful cross between blue chip natural history that Smithsonian Networks require and Sex and the City," said David Royle, Executive Vice President, Programming & Production, Smithsonian Networks. "It's animals behaving badly, and it's thoroughly entertaining."
(BMcC)