Electric Shadow & Rogan Productions Team for True-Crime Doc

Electric Shadow Company and Rogan Productions have partnered to produce and finance the docuseries Original Sin, examining alleged murderer Gerhard Jansen van Vuuren’s life.

After allegedly murdering his girlfriend in front of witnesses and cameras in 2011 and escaping prison twice, van Vuuren evaded authorities across two continents for years, assuming three different identities and starting families with several different women before being caught in 2020. The docuseries compiles personal archives from his childhood, news footage surrounding the alleged crime and exclusive access to the trial, currently underway in Johannesburg.

Director, writer and editor John Gutierrez (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream) directs the series. Producers are Sarah Laita and Jay Taylor for Electric Shadow Company and Mark Hedgecoe, James Rogan and Soleta Rogan for Rogan Productions.

Original Sin is an Electric Shadow Company, Rogan Productions and MultiChoice Studios co-production, in association with Combined Artistic Productions (CAP) and Red Earth. It is currently produced as a miniseries but has the option of being crafted into a feature film.

“I’m excited to embark on this docuseries with the Electric Shadow Company and Rogan Productions,” said Gutierrez. “Having an experienced team of creative producers like them will help to create a riveting true-crime series. I was interested in telling this story, not only because of my connection to South Africa but also because my family has wrestled with mental illness and violence for generations. It’s been a multi-generational struggle and one that has shaped me. Exploring the question of how traumatic environments can lead to violence, and in extreme cases create a murderer, gives me insights into the psychological trauma my own family has experienced and that I still carry.”

James Rogan added, “We are delighted to be working again with director John Gutierrez and partnering with the Electric Shadow Company on this project. It is a shocking tale of abuse, alleged murder and a flight from justice that reaches deep into the unresolved traumas that still haunt South Africa.”

“John wonderfully reveals how van Vuuren, armed with his cunning and deception, unbelievably manipulated the authorities in multiple nations and maintained his freedom for so long,” said Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Electric Shadow Company. “Interwoven in this clever, macabre cat-and-mouse tale is an exploration of van Vuuren’s upbringing. John takes the audience on a journey into van Vuuren’s violent childhood, creating insight into the making of an alleged murderer and explores the influences of nature vs. nurture. The intimate exposure of his long-awaited trial will provide extra dynamism rarely experienced outside dramatized fiction. It’s an unbelievable story where truth really is stranger than fiction.”