Nigerian Times

Daniel Espinosa directing "Safe House" in Cape Town. Film making in Cape Town, South Africa costs 20% less than in Australia and 30-40% less than in Europe or United States of America. Of course, many people in Nigeria and most people outside the United States don't know what it means for a movie to top the U.S. box office on Super Bowl weekend. It is not a small achievement and that is what Josh Trank's directorial debut Chronicle did in the first weekend of February 2012. The American science fiction thriller was set in Seattle, but was made in South Africa's Cape Town where low production costs are attracting filmmakers from Hollywood and other major film studios in the United States and Europe. Chronicle cost only $12 million, but made over $126 million for 20th Century Fox, according to the CNN report by Robyn Curnow and Teo Kermeliotis on December 13, 2012. "Fox was totally stunned by it," says Nico Dekker, chief executive of Cape To...

Books for inmates. Photo Credit: NATIONAL POST . 30 Jul 2013 13:30 Africa/Lagos Could Illiteracy and the Lack of Effective Reading Strategies Be The Hidden Cause of Crime? Applied Scholastics International, a non-profit dedicated to eradicating illiteracy, believes crime can be greatly reduced by raising literacy ST. LOUIS, July 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Literacy Act of 1991 defines literacy as "an individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential." According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, "Poor reading and writing skills have a devastating lifelong impact - 75% of school dropouts report reading problems, and at least half of adolescents and young adults with criminal records have reading difficulties." DoSomething.org, the coun...

Poster of new Kannywood movie GABAR CIKIN GIDA. Nigerian Movies Will Boost Africa's Projected 5.2 Percent GDP Growth in 2013 Euromonitor International and Reed Exhibitions, organizers of the World Travel Market, in a report last November said that Africa's projected 5.2 percent GDP growth in 2013 would be due in part to the popularity of Nigerian films, which it said would also attract domestic and regional tourism. ~ http://in.finance.yahoo.com/news/india-help-build-film-city-093905381.html Indian Investment in Nigerian Film to Aid Development ~ By Julie Fuller The Kano State in Nigeria is to get a new “film city” as part of an ongoing development project with India. Like India, Nigeria has enjoyed a booming film industry , and it is hoped that developing this sector will help to bring vital income to the country. It is anticipated that the creation of the film city will bring thousands of jobs to the Nigerian population. It is also hoped that by ca...

25 Jul 2013 00:04 Africa/Lagos IMAX, Wanda And AMC Theatres Significantly Expand Worldwide Partnership Deals with Wanda and AMC Include Minimum of 40 and up to 120 New IMAX® Theatres Across China and U.S. Wanda and AMC Extend IMAX Lease Terms NEW YORK and BEIJING, July 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX) and Wanda Cinema Line Corporation, Asia's largest cinema owner, today announced an amendment to the parties' original 2011 joint revenue share agreement with the addition of a minimum of 40 and up to 120 new IMAX® theatres to be located throughout China. The deal also extends Wanda's lease terms for all new theatres to 12 years from 10 years and brings Wanda's total IMAX commitment in China to up to 210 theaters, positioning Wanda Cinema Line as IMAX's largest international exhibition partner. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111107/MM01969LOGO) In addition, IMAX and AMC Theatres, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanda Gr...

No, these are not scenes from Terry George's Hotel Rwanda and of course Chiwetel Ejiofor is not Donald Frank "Don" Cheadle, Jr. These are gripping melodramatic scenes from the Nigerian-British film adaptation of Half of A Yellow Sun, the thrilling award winning novel on the ill-fated Igbos Republic of Biafra by the young and successful Nigerian Igbo novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The movie has a well chosen cast of British and Nigerian actors, including leading roles by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton and other notable actors in the movie include Anika Noni Rose, John Boyega, Joseph Mawle and famous Nollywood star Genevieve Nnaji who ironically played a minor role as a Yoruba woman and not her native Igbo which would have been more appreciated by millions of her fellow Igbos in Nigeria and the Diaspora. This is the baptism of fire in directing for popular British Nigerian writer Biyi Bandele who also wrote the screenplay for this Nigerian civil war dr...

18 Jul 2013 16:00 Africa/Lagos Summit Entertainment's Divergent To Be Released In IMAX® Theatres Worldwide On March 21, 2014 SAN DIEGO, July 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAX Corporation (NYSE: IMAX; TSX: IMX) and Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF) company, today announced that Divergent, the first installment of the futuristic action-adventure trilogy based on Veronica Roth's The New York Times bestselling novels, will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® format and released in IMAX® theatres worldwide beginning March 21, 2014. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111107/MM01969LOGO ) Divergent is directed by Neil Burger (The Illusionist) from a screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor and Neil Burger and stars Golden Globe® nominee Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), Theo James and Academy Award® winner Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic). The film is a thrilling adventure set in a future world where people are divided into distinct ...

13 Jul 2013 02:23 Africa/Lagos "DAVE" to Screen at Indiana Black Expo In Partnership with the Heartland Film Festival Award Winning Feature Documentary Promotes Racial Equality & Investing In the Lives of Others www.dave-movie.com AUSTIN, Texas and INDIANAPOLIS, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Crowfly Pictures Entertainment, Through The Fog Pictures and Indiana Black Expo, Inc. (IBE), announced that the mentor themed feature documentary, "DAVE," will be screening as part of IBE's film festival, in partnership with the prestigious Heartland Film Festival. The screening time is 3:00 on Sunday, July 14 th in the Toby Theater at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Produced from 2006 to 2012, "DAVE" is the hope filled story of Adam "Coach D" Donyes, an unlikely young mentor that uses basketball to shepherd an intellectually disabled African American teen (David "Dave" Sterling) in rural Missouri. In turn, Dave leads Coach ...

9 Jul 2013 18:30 Africa/Lagos Sony's Elysium Lands In IMAX® Theatres Worldwide Starting August 9  LOS ANGELES , July 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IMAX Corporation (NYSE:IMAX; TSX:IMX), along with TriStar Pictures and Media Rights Capital today announced that Elysium , filmmaker Neill Blomkamp's ( District 9 ) futuristic action film starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster , will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® format and released in IMAX® theatres worldwide beginning August 9 . (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20111107/MM01969LOGO ) " Neill Blomkamp is the kind of innovative, creative storyteller that moviegoers seek out, and we are thrilled to bring this highly anticipated film to IMAX audiences worldwide," said Greg Foster , CEO of IMAX Entertainment and Senior Executive Vice President IMAX Corp. "Elysium is one of the most highly anticipated films of the summer, so we're pleased that audiences will have the chance...

Despicable Me 2 - Universal - $82.5M Lone Ranger , The - Disney - $29.4M Heat, The - 20th Century Fox - $25.0M Monsters University - Disney - $19.6M World War Z - Paramount - $18.2M White House Down - Sony - $13.5M Man Of Steel - Warner Bros. - $11.4M Kevin Hart : Let Me Explain - Lionsgate - $10.1M This Is The End - Sony - $5.8M Now You See Me - Lionsgate - $2.8M Full details regarding the global domestic and international box office results are listed on http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/main.jsp?resourceid=7115949 . Tweet

THE POWER OF OUTDOOR CINEMA: SCREEN NAIJA ONE VILLAGE, ONE CINEMA PROJECT ~ By Basil Chukwuezi My earliest memories of the cinema were those of the mobile screen on the fields of St George’s school Aba, south eastern Nigeria. Growing up then, it was commonly used as a medium of information, entertainment, and yes, merchandise. The organizers will mount the screen on the roof of their travelling van and project whatever old western, public enlightenment or product advertisement repertoire they had. The screenings were always at night and they would drive down the neighborhood that evening to announce the programme over booming speakers. And expectedly we children and adults alike will gather faithfully to watch their offerings and listen to whatever products they had to advertise which were also sold during intermissions. It served as entertainment and diversion, but equally fired the imaginations of not a few of us. Later on in my undergraduate days film and television were a...