One year ago, as thousands of global film and TV industry reps descended on Berlin for the European Film Market, executives from Nigerian production and distribution powerhouse FilmOne Entertainment had good reason to feel optimistic. The company had recently unveiled a $1 million film fund with China’s Huahua Media and South Africa’s Empire Entertainment, an unprecedented pact for the Nigerian movie industry. Production on the first film financed by the fund had just begun, and it looked like the start to a promising year.
That would change in a matter of days, as the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the West African nation, shuttering cinemas for five months and halting production in the prolific Nollywood film biz. Yet the industry rallied in the months ahead, and by year’s end, FilmOne had produced seven feature films in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. “We were able to get these films...
That would change in a matter of days, as the coronavirus pandemic arrived in the West African nation, shuttering cinemas for five months and halting production in the prolific Nollywood film biz. Yet the industry rallied in the months ahead, and by year’s end, FilmOne had produced seven feature films in the midst of an unprecedented crisis. “We were able to get these films...
- 3/3/2021
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Director also plans to shoot sequel to When Love Happens in London later this year.
Seyi Babatope is now shooting what he calls the first Nollywood family film, on location in Lagos, Nigeria.
The film, Lunchtime Heroes, is about a group of seven students who are bad at sports who have to take part in a skills challenge. Their teacher is a volunteer through the National Youth Service Corps who doesn’t fit in at the upper-class school.
“A family film has never been done before here,” Babatope told Screen on the set in Lagos. “I wanted to give African kids something to relate to, to uplift the spirit of the African child. It’s a film families can go see together.”
His cast of young unknowns has impressed him; some were scouted through local churches. “The kids are just so good.”
He added, “If an African kid can be Hannah Montana-ish we could be tapping...
Seyi Babatope is now shooting what he calls the first Nollywood family film, on location in Lagos, Nigeria.
The film, Lunchtime Heroes, is about a group of seven students who are bad at sports who have to take part in a skills challenge. Their teacher is a volunteer through the National Youth Service Corps who doesn’t fit in at the upper-class school.
“A family film has never been done before here,” Babatope told Screen on the set in Lagos. “I wanted to give African kids something to relate to, to uplift the spirit of the African child. It’s a film families can go see together.”
His cast of young unknowns has impressed him; some were scouted through local churches. “The kids are just so good.”
He added, “If an African kid can be Hannah Montana-ish we could be tapping...
- 3/18/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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