DEATH VISITS NOLLYWOOD AGAIN

Osita Iheme

NDUBUISI OKOH DIES

It looks like the Nigerian Movie Industry, Nollywood has been earmarked for visitations by the angel of death. One of Nollywood's topmost and foremost Director's Ndubuisi Okoh passed on this morning in his Aba, Abia State residence.
The amiable but reclusive director of such movies as IDENTITY, LOST KINGDOM, MYSTERIOUS
 and a myraid Nollywood movies gave up the ghost this morning. Details of his passing are still sketchy but from what we have been able to gather, Ndubuisi who held sway in the industry in the mid 90's and early 2000's suffered a massive stroke three years ago, an incident that stopped him from working since then, He had been recuperating until six months ago when he returned to directing.

Amayo Uzo Philips

Industry insiders are still shocked at the development. Owerri based Director Amayo Uzo Philips(AKI and Paw- Paw) said,
 " I am shocked to hear of his death. He has waded through his  worst times only to die now that he is bouncing back to work. As it stands this is the first time we are losing a Core Director and i can tell you that the Director's Guild of Nigeria has lost one of her best."

NEW HOT AND SIZZLING 2

Belinda Effah

    BELINDA EFFAH


Belinda Effah is beautiful. That word can be used for just about anybody these days but only a few people carry the true meaning of the word in their lives and their personalities. Belinda is one of such. The first time I met her was at the National Theater. The Guild of Producers were holding an event and a friend had finally coaxed me to come out from my social hibernation and attend.Sylvya Oluchy had brought her over and introduced her. She did not waste one minute as she took my hand and we became friends. i was struck by her humility and friendly disposition more than her beauty which is what a lot of people focus on first. All afternoon we talked about the industry and her ambitions. That meeting was not the first time I was seeing Belinda however. I'd seen her competing in the 2006 edition of THE NEXT MOVIE STAR where she put up a credible performance and came in 5th. This graduate of genetics and biotechnology moved on from there and became a television presenter with music channel SOUNDCITY and later LUNCHBREAK WITH BELINDA . Much as the television presentation job gained her a lot of recognition and exposure, her heart still lay on the silver screen. She made her come back in the soap TALES OF EVE and have gone ahead to star in more movies. she has just finished work on Uduak Oguamanam's.multi lingual (Ibibio/English) KOKOMA, a movie that was directed by Tom Robson, where she played opposite Ini Ikpe, Ekere Nkangha, and Ifeanyi Kalu. The movie is scheduled to be released in August by Emem Isong's Royal Arts Academy 

Belinda

 Belinda's journey has picked up steam and this rising star is one to watch

THESCRIPTFACTORY'S SHORT FILM SCREENWRITING COMPETITION

the organisers of the scriptfactory/generationnext short film writing competition have announced the extensions of entries for the competition. Reginald Ebere speaking said they have taken the step due to the volume of entries that are still coming even after the official closing date which had been set for the 15th of this month. The extension is up till the 30th of July. For those who have not submitted their scripts yet and are desirous of entering for the competition, they can still forward soft copies of their scripts and their details to thescriptfactory2006@yahoo.co.uk. a new date for teh announcement of results and teh giving out of the prices have not been announced yet.

THESCRIPTFACTORY

SCRIPTFACTORY'S SCRIPT SALES

The Scriptfactory Nigeria's foremost script company has opened a script sales arm. Speaking to the press the president of the outfit Reginald Ebere said that the arm was opened to help represent screen writers. "We get a lot of requests from writers looking for how to sell theIr scripts, and since we have a relationship with producers, we have decided to create a synergy between the two groups. what we plan to do is post a synopsis of these scripts on our blog pages and also pass same to all producers as the need arises and negotiate for the sales of these scripts on behalf of the writers. This effectively means that we are activating our script sales agency." 

So if you are a writer and you have scripts for sale consider sending them to thescriptfactory.   

IT'S KATES DAY

KATE HENSHAW

There is no picture of Kate Henshaw where she is not grinning. Her smile simply lights up every dark spot around her. It took us a lot of searching to find one of her pictures where she was wearing a straight face. In every situation she simply looks to be the happiest NOLLYWOOD STAR alive. It has taken almost two decades for Kate to come to this point in her life. Right now she is as refined as Gold. It has not always been smiles for the Iconic star. It takes hardwork and a lot of heat to refine gold and i know that kate has put in a lot of hardwork and has taken a lot of heat to become the glittering finished gem she has become.
The story of how I met her and how we worked together to launch our careers and produce the two success stories we both have, is one that she and i have told so many times. I do not need to go into that all over again. I just want to take out time to salute a woman touched by star dust, a woman who keeps smiling despite all that the world has thrown at her, a woman who keeps standing when others have slumped. an icon of Nollywood and a leading light to the generations behind. Dear Kate, this is saying Happy birthday and may your remaining years continually be filled with laughter and sunshine and yet more laughter. THE SCRIPTFACTORY wishes you the best.

NEW, HOT, AND SIZZLING

As I write and you read this, there are probably over ten thousand actors poised nd ready to pour into Nollywood, the Nigerian movie industry. Most of them will not make it. It simply looks like Nollywood is a closed  industry as producers and directors keep recycling the same actors. If you do not know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody or you are not ready to dish out favors especially in the bedrooms of the powers that be, you might never even get a leg in. The only "easy route" into Nollywood is to find an uncle who has enough money to risk and shoot your own movie. that way you get to star and get noticed.
Now that is the story of the common folk but there is a different class, those that will always make it big whether the doors are closed or not. They thrive on raw talent, raw beauty absolute professionalism and trailer loads of intelligence and determination to succeed. We bring you a couple of them here here. some are very new, some are not so new, some have been around for quite a bit and are making a grand come back. but whatever they are, these are 2 of the female Nollywood stars of the future. And as time goes on in this series, we will keep unveiling others. Watch this space.

Naya Amobi

NAYA AMOBI


 A recent graduate of Theatre arts, ex-beauty queen Naya Amobi is set  to take over from the likes of Genevieve Nnaji. Young, vivacious and  shy in equal measure, Naya mixes beauty, intelligence and a  determination to succeed as an actress that is alomst unrivalled  amongst the new entrants in Nollywood.

 She has been around for a very short time but has achieved so much  within that period. Last year she joned the cast of Nigeria's most  popular day soap TINSEL, playing the role of "Nnenna". She is  gradually but quickly gannering a lot of attention. That attention has just  led her to starring in Chimamanda Adichie's HALF OF A YELLOW  SUN. The young princess from the Awka Royal Family, who had also  starred in the traditional block buster THE KING AND THE PRIEST  opposite sex symbol Yul Edochie has a lot of other projects lined up. it  is certainly going to be a busy half  year for Naya as she fully steps into  the lime light.

Sylvya Oluchy

                                                                                                                                                              SYLVYA  OLUCHY


There are a couple of truly naturally talented super actresses in Nollywood. Very few indeed that you can say were born to act. When you are calling the likes of Liz Benson, Genevieve Nnaji, Mercy Johnson, we honestly believe that Sylvya Oluchy's name should be added to that elite list. She has already proven the reason why she is in that list by snaring the Best Rising Star 2012 award at one of the recent Nollywood Movies Award held in Lagos. Before then however she had exhibited her mettle in the award winning soap ATALANTA and a couple of other movies. But her big break came when she starred opposite  Stella Damasus, and Omoni Oboli in the movie BENT ARROWS where she played the role of Idarra, In the movie, Idara, a young girl sent to live with her maternal uncle in Abuja, is brutally raped. When she became pregnant, she is forced to sleep with a doctor as payment for an abortion. Repeatedly abused by men, she becomes hardened and proceeds to use her sexuality to get the finer things of life.It was a role Sylvia delivered with aplomb. Right now she is set to play in the lead role in Reginald Ebere's next movie "OF HUSBAND'S AND WIVES" opposite new leading man OC Ukeje. One of the true new Divas in Nollywood, keep your eye on this one because you will yet see her for a long time to come.

AMBASSADOR OLUSOLA'S BURIAL CAUSES BAD BLOOD

Justus Esiri

TROUBLE IN THE VILLAGE
A few weeks ago Ambassador Olusola, the great culture icon, Nigeria's former ambassador to Ethopia, owner and curator of the Moniyan Ajibula arts gallery and most importantly producer of one of Nigeria's National emblems, television programme, Village headmaster which held the nation spell bound through the seventies and eighties passed on. Ordinarily it was supposed to be a time to celebrate the life of a man who had impacted so much on the National Psyche and cultural landscape however a lot of angst has been generated following the announcement of his burial arrangements, especially amongst the cast and crew of his television soap Village Headmaster.

Late Ambassador Olusola

From what transpired, the cast had been scheduled to perform during the Ambassador's obsequies and the former Director and producer of the soap Chief Tunde Oloyode who had incidentally been preparing to put the soap on the Big Screen and back on stage - a project that is likely going to be financed by the Lagos State Government- had called the Cast together to commence rehearsals. Unfortunately he was not going to be around since he had previously been scheduled to attend a lecture instituted to honor the name of his late daughter in the UK. Caught in a bind with nobody to direct the stage peformance, he had reached out to the Oloja of Village Headmaster Dejumo Lewis to help out. Dejumo refused to respond at first ignoring Chief Tunde Oloyode's phone calls and text messages. When Chief Oloyode pressed the issue, Dejumo we heard blew his top and accused Oloyode of taking him for granted and being presumptous by informing him late.

Dejumo Lewis

Chief Oloyode said "My daughters' annual lecture was instituted by her University two years ago when she passed on. My wife and I had already bought our tickets and assured the University we were going to be there before the Ambassador passed on. The arrangements for his burial were not announced by the family until Friday last week and immediately i found out i was not going to be able to handle the plans, i reached out to Dejumo and other members of cast. i don't see how that makes me presumptous. All i was trying to do was to honor the memory of a man who gave so much to us, to this country. I felt that he was the oldest perrsona nd the most experienced that i could hand things over to. If Dejumo did not want to be part of this all he would have done was to say i can' be part of it and we would have known what to do instead he shouted at me over the phone and accused me of disrespecting people who are older than me. But i take it all in good faith. it is painful though that cast of Village Headmaster might not be part of this whole burial arrangement of a national icon."
We will keep you posted as events unfold but from what we hear, other members of cast like Justus Esiri have stepped into the fray and are working towards calming frayed nerves and injured egos so that the show will hold.

KOBI RANA'S HOTEL BABYLON FOR NIGERIAN MARKET

He is just 26 years old but Ghanaian film maker and musician Kobi Rana seems to be already building a larger than life image in the African movie insdustry. A few years ago he came out with his debut effort, simple, romanctic-comedy, Kiss Me If You Can, a movie that was recieved with critical acclaim and one that firmly established delectable Martha Ankomah as an A-list star. This was quickly followed by another block buster, 2bad, then to Crazy. This Year the hardworking youngman who is known for choosing quirky themes and not being afraid of trying new talents and new models, Kobi has shot and premiered Hotel Babylon, a no holds barred, no clothes on thriller. In shooting the movie he ruffled a few Ghanain feathers when he looked beyond the plethora of Ghollywood leading men to cast Nigerian superstar Ramsey Noauh in the lead role. Now Kobi who has also shot the comedy Azonto Boys is set to push Hotel Babylon into the Nigerian video market and it looks as if marketing giants O'Gabby Innovations and Reginald Ebere's new online platform Gudugudu TV are the ones chosen to market the movie.
When we reached Kobi, this is what he said.
"I am careful about who i give my movies to market. i value my product and i believe that only the best should market them. O' Gabby marketed my first movie in Nigeria, KISS ME IF YOU CAN and Reginald is somebody i have always admired and looked up to. He is an innovator and is very concerned with quality. I hear that his new platform is ready to revolutionize the industry as we know it. So i will go with them. Right now we have just opened discussions. Nothing is cast in stone. I am excited at these new collaborations and developments. Lets see how it goes"

NOLLYWOOD BOILS: IROKOTV SUES AFRINOLLY

JASON NJOKU CEO IROKO PARTNERS

IROKO TV an on-line platform that streams Nollywood movies is headed to the courts. They are suing the new mobile app platform AFRINOLLY whose app was designed for users to watch Nollywood content on Samsung, Nokia and Blackberry devices following partnerships with Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry and MTN Nigeria, for copyright infringment
Before now IROKO PATNERS had formally requested  Afrinolly to remove all Iroko tv's copyrighted content from NollywoodLove a Youtube channel owned by IROKO PARTNERS  and other channels or face legal action.
From what we gathered, Afrinolly had complied "it appears that they refused to remove other links from the NollywoodLove channel and other channels belonging to iROKO Partners from its platform, including but not limited to movie clips and trailers."

CHIKE MADUEGBUNA CEO AFRINOLLY

This may not be bad in itself since iROKO Partners has granted over 100 syndication partners license to use its movies on their websites. But the issue is that Afrinolly has been promoting full length movies on radio and newspaper adverts and pre-loading its app on Samsung, Nokia and Blackberry devices following partnerships with Samsung, Nokia, Blackberry and MTN Nigeria.

What’s more?

Afrinolly is said to have been misrepresenting iROKO Partners with these partnerships, likely saying that it has a partnership arrangement with iROKO Partners and have signed contracts with them to distribute the movie content on its platform.

Meanwhile, the owner of Afrinolly, Chike Maduegbuna has not responded to my calls and text messages.

According to a letter dated July 3, 2012, signed by iROKO Partners legal counsel, Tope Lucas to Chike Maduegbuna and made available to TechLoy, the company said:

We would like to categorically state without any equivocation that we are not in, never was, and do not have any partnership arrangement with your platform/firm (AFRINOLLY). We have never at any time prior to now authorized or granted any rights to your firm/AFRINOLLY or your agent or representative(s) to deal with MTN Nigeria Communications Limited on our behalf.

This begs the question: How could MTN Nigeria, Samsung, and other Afrinolly partners have gone ahead with such a partnership without sighting any contract of agreement between Afrinolly and iROKO Partners for the rights to distribute full length movies?

Jason Njoku, CEO of iROKO Partners confirmed the lawsuit in a statement saying:

“In an industry that is rife with misrepresentation, piracy and copyright infringement, we are left with no option but to begin legal action against Afrinolly, who have been illegally building their business on our content.”

He further noted that his company spends millions of dollars legally buying and organizing Nigerian content and hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in combating piracy and ensuring movie producers are remunerated properly for their content.

“It is simply unacceptable for Afrinolly to steal their work and profit from it”, he added, “Afrinolly, since its inception, has never bother to even discuss with us or other content owners and has definitely not remunerated anyone to date.”

According to him, movie producers are now thinking that he (Jason) turned around and sold their rights to MTN Nigeria for $20 million. Literally, fucking them over.

“We have been approached by a number of Nollywood producers, who have expressed dismay that their movies are being exploited. As part of our commitment to the lifeblood of the industry, the producers, we see no other means than to seriously consider our options, look at how we can manage the damage done to our reputation and bring this extraordinary mass copyright infringement to a swift conclusion”, he stated.
Article reproduced with the kind permission of Techloy
http://techloy.com/2012/07/12/why-we-are-suing-afrinolly-jason-njoku/

MERCY JOHNSON AND QUEEN NWOKOYE BRAVE BOKO-HARAM. APPEAR IN FIRST TV SOAP

Mercy Johnson

CORNERSTONE - THE SOAP.


Others will not dare but recently married, delectable actress Mercy Johnson and her good friend Queen Nwokoye are a different breed. Maybe it is the lure of appearing in their very first Soap Opera's or most importantly it might just be because they are doing it for God. But in these dangerous times, Mercy and Queen are leaving husband and family to head into the war zone of Kaduna to shoot a soap, titled CORNERSTONE. Also on the train is Grandson of first generation politician and nationalist Herbert Macaulay, and returnee actor, Wale Macaulay and Senior actress of Nigeria (SAN), presenter of 700 Club Nigeria, Ethelle Ekpe Aderemi.

Queen Nwokoye

The soap which tells the story of a dysfunctional family in search of God is to be directed by Reginald Ebere. Mercy also scores a first in the as she plays the role of a medical doctor.something she has never played before. CORNERSTONE is to be run as a daily soap and will be aired on National television. It is Mercy and Queen Nwokoye's first day time soap as they take a step into television. It will be shot in Kaduna and environs. The producer said " Because of the fact that they are actresses and play diverse roles, people do not understand that these young women are Christians and have a passion for God. Mercy and Queen are active Christains and are very involved with the work we are doing in Church. We have a film and television arm which they are part of but their schedules had limited their participation up to this point but now they have decided to put aside every other thing and do this." So producers if you are looking for these two, you have to brave Boko Haram and go find them in Kaduna because that's where they would be for the next two weeks. And do not worry that anything will happen to them, God protects His own.


THE PAST CAME CALLING

Chioma Chkwuka Akpotha

Movie director, scion of the Amata movie dynasty and President of Classact UK, Ruke Amata has finally released his new movie THE PAST CAME CALLING. The movie is about a young Medical Student, Susan (Marie Kumba Gomez – the winner of Class Act UK 2011) who along with her sister, Maggie (Chioma Chukwuka-Akpotha), arrives UK to study

Cynical about getting involved with white men, she finally falls in love with  Guy Dermot (Oliver Jolliffe), who was introduced to her by her sister’s boyfriend, Kachi (John Dumelo). They start a whirlwind romance that had all the trappings of a fairy tale until events of the past came calling.

The Past Came Calling is a story about the power of love over racial prejudice and long held beliefs.






                              THE PAST CAME CALLING 
                              MOVIE TRAILER








HAPPY BIRTHDAY RITA DOMINIC

Rita Dominic

This is saying happy birthday to a friend of the house, my little sister, a-list actress, producer, and compere Rita Dominic. This is wishing you many more years of happiness and fulfilment. For the joy you have brought to the hearts of millions, for advancing our brand, Nollywood and for painting the name Nigeria across the world in Good light we say Happy Birthday Girl. God bless you.