British TV bosses are splashing out over one million pounds to hire a fabulous Franschhoek villa exclusively for five months, for the filming of the new Winter Love Island in South Africa. The much-anticipated details of the new Winter Love Island in South Africa has now been revealed, with the Ludus Magnus villa being named as the setting for the new series.
The stunning 5-star villa which will see contestants arriving in January is set in 25 stunning acres of a pristine wine valley just a couple of miles from tycoon Richard Branson’s flagship celebrity hotel. The 17-bed Ludus Magnus villa is named after the most prestigious ancient gladiatorial school in Rome, where fighters like those played by Hollywood legend Russell Crowe were trained to be killers.
And for the competitors in the new winter Love Island, the gladiatorial history will not be lost on them as they battle each other in the knockout series to see which couple are the last two left standing. And there will be plenty of sports on offer when the contestants are chauffeur driven in through the villa’s heavily guarded gates after the 50-minute drive from Cape Town airport if they want to get physical.
A Love Island insider said ITV producers chose this luxury sporting conception to host the first winter competition for 3 years, buying up the villa till April.
Features: Lovely manor house with 8 luxurious double bedrooms and 3 villas with 3 double bedrooms (34 beds in all are available); Michelin star chef & professional butler; 25 metre T-shaped swimming pool; 400m running track, a football and rugby pitch, its own river: sandy beach with a pizza oven and BBQ with hammocks with two 50m long Olympic swimming lanes in the dam; spa with a massage area, tree house with fast ziplines, a gym and a mountain bike track weaving through over 7000 fruit trees; 4-acre Shiraz vineyard, and 4 rescue donkeys and three resident springboks.
“The whole villa is totally 100% off the grid as it is powered by 266 solar panels and has its own boreholes and streams for water, so it is totally eco-friendly and just a cool place. When Love Island sought out Ludus Magnus it was for the owners like all their Christmas’s had come at once as it was a huge block booking from the middle of November to April 9 2023”
“They wanted Ludus for 5 months and at £8,000 a day for the whole villa that is a very cool £1.2m, but the TV company is bringing in their own upgrades as well to make it more spectacular.”
“There is a team of gardeners brought in to make it look even more tropical despite all the palm trees round the pool and the thousands of citrus trees already there at no cost to the owners.”
“There are carpenters and electricians building all sorts of new things for the show, and of course there will be cameras and microphones built everywhere inside and outside to capture everything.”
The debut Winter series, aired in Cape Town in 2020 and was won by Paige Turley and Finn Tapp who scooped the £50k prize but Covid-19 led to it being put on ice until now.
Mike Spencer, Executive Producer at Lifted Entertainment, said: After eight brilliant series we are excited to be serving up two new helpings of love in 2023 starting in January.
