Ghanaian movie star, Oboy Siki, has publicly confessed to sleeping with over 3000 women.
During an interview with Rashad on GhPage’s Rash Hour Show, Oboy Siki disclosed that he’s a serial w0manizer and will never deny having such trait.
He disclosed that he has slept with more women than any male in the movie industry and the only person who comes close to his ‘record’ is media personality, Akrobeto.
Oboy Siki further revealed that Akrobeto has slept with almost all the women he has slept with.
Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos has described the movie, “Gangs of Lagos”, as defamatory and sacrilegious for depicting the ‘Eyo’ as criminal gangs that commit grotesque murder and visit terror on innocent citizens.
The traditional ruler raised concerns about the film in a three-page letter he addressed to the management of Amazon Prime Nigeria and Greoh Ltd. on June 28, listing four conditions that the producers and promoters should meet within 14 days.
Akiolu called Amazon Web Service, Greoh Studios and the film producers “to immediately remove, cease and desist from using the image getup and manifestation of the Eyo in the Gangs of Lagos.”
According to the traditional ruler, the film has inflicted huge reputational damage on the Eyo brand.
Gangs of Lagos, since its release has been a subject of controversies among the indigenous people of Lagos State with the Isale Eko Descendants Union (IDU) claiming that the film depicted Isale Eko as a den of criminals and Eyo masquerade as a gang of murderers.
The descendants of Isale Eko had equally instituted a suit seeking N10 billion damages against Amazon and other producers over what they described as huge reputational damage the Gangs of Lagos inflicted on the Eyo brand.
Akiolu, in his letter, copied Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, claiming that the illegal representation of the Eyo by the movie had caused huge reputational damage to the Eyo brand.
The traditional ruler also claimed that on the international stage, potential tourists and visitors to Lagos were likely to query the authenticity of the Eyo as true cultural heritage event deserving of respect and reverence.
He further claimed that the film producers had used the complete getup, indistinguishable image and traditionally designed and ordained appearance of the Eyo which forms part of the cultural heritage of the indigenous people of Lagos for commercial gain and exploitation.
This, he said, was done without permission or due reference to the office of the Oba of Lagos.
“I am the custodian and final authority of the Adimu Orisa and its manifestation the Eyo. These traditional rites are the tangible and intangible property of the indigenes of Lagos and these are their bundle of rights of our intellectual property in our cultural heritage.
“This cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artefacts and intangible attributes that has been inherited from past generations over two hundred years ago, maintained in the present by the Oba of Lagos and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.
“These traditions express our way of life and thought. They are proofs of our intellectual and spiritual achievements. They must not be used without the indigenous owners’ express permission or desecrated in any way whatsoever,” he said.
The Oba alleged that the film grossly violated the rights of the indigenous people of Lagos contrary to the provisions of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007.
Under the international law, Oba Akiolu noted that the declaration protects “our indigenous right to practise and revitalise our cultural traditions and customs.
“This includes the right to maintain, protect and develop the past, present and future manifestations of our cultures, includes artefacts, designs, ceremonies, technologies and visual and performing arts and literature.”
Oba Akiolu, therefore, demanded that the continued use and depiction of the Eyo in the film and its obvious violation of indigenous intellectual property rights as well as defaming sacred rites should stop forthwith.
As parts of peace conditions, Akiolu directed the film producers to “immediately remove, cease and desist from using the image getup and manifestation of the Adimu Orisa – the Eyo – your film Gangs of Lagos.”
He also asked the film producers to submit within 14 days a proposal for consideration for the restitution of the sanctity of the Eyo brand.
He asked the film producers to “provide within 14 days compensatory proposal for the infringement of our intellectual property rights in our cultural heritage which you have commercially exploited without licence.”
The traditional ruler demanded that the producers of Gangs of Lagos should submit within 14 days a draft of an appropriately worded apology to the Oba of Lagos and indigenous people of Lagos.
Popular British actor, Idris Elba, has stated reasons why he stopped playing the lead character in the eponymous British fictional franchise, James Bond.
According to Elba, it was very interesting playing James Bond “until it became about racism.”
The 50-year-old thespian disclosed this while featuring as a guest on the latest episode of the Smartless podcast co-hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Haves and Will Arnett.
He added that the rumours flying about him while playing the role were very exciting for him.
Elba said, “The truth is, I was super complemented for a long time about this [playing the James Bond role]. I was like, ‘This is crazy! James Bond?’
“We are all actors and we understand that role. It’s one of those coveted roles. Being asked to be James Bond was like, ‘Okay, you’ve sort of reached the pinnacle.’ That is one of those things the whole world has a vote in.
“It was a huge compliment that every corner of the world, except for some corners, which we will not talk about, were really happy about the idea that I could be considered. Those that weren’t happy about the idea made the whole thing disgusting because it became about race.”
AS Roma manager, Jose Mourinho has been tipped to play a James Bond villain by Sam Mendes, the director of Skyfall and Spectre.
When asked about who would make a great Bond villain by a Guardian reader for a feature in their newspaper, iconic British director, Mendes said;
“I have no idea. They’ve made it so difficult for themselves for two reasons. One is they turned the franchise into something extraordinary with Daniel Craig. If you think about the actors that might have been up for the role after Pierce Brosnan, a lot of people would have said, ‘No way.’
“They would not have even been considered for the role, not wanted to be considered for the role. Now, there’s barely an actor in the world who would turn it down. And that’s because of Daniel and because what’s happened to the franchise since. So that’s a great thing.
“The bad thing is he’s dead. You tell me how they get out of that one. I want to ask, ‘How would you get out of it?’ As for a great Bond villain? José Mourinho. You can’t get better than that can you?”
Among those who have played James Bond villains are Rami Malek and Donald Pleasence.
Veteran film stars Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornell have been kidnapped after they left a movie location in Enugu.
Spokesperson of Actors Guild of Nigeria(AGN) Monalisa Chinda announced this via her verified Instagram page.
Chinda said her senior colleagues were reportedly missing after their family members confirmed they didn’t come back from a film location at Ozalla Town, Enugu State.
National President of AGN, Emeka Rollas, urged members to avoid going to cities’ outskirts to film except when full security was provided to ensure safety.
The statement reads: “Two members of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, Cynthia Okereke and Clemson Cornel aka (Agbogidi) were reportedly missing after their family members confirmed they didn’t come back from a film Location at Ozalla Town, Enugu state.
“The two members were suspected to have been kidnapped and this has increased fear amongst members about safety of Actors filming in the country.
“In view of this sad development, the National President of the Guild, Ejezie Emeka Rollas has instructed all Actors to avoid going to outskirt of cities to film except full security cover is provided to ensure their safety.
“The National President is shocked over this ugly incident and urged the security agencies to speed up investigations that would lead to their safe rescue.
“He equally appeals to all members to pray for the safe return of the thespians.”
Popular actor, Ernest Obi has recounted how he went naked during the filming of ‘Till Death’, his movie, about two decades ago.
The veteran took to his Instagram page to talk about the production of the film wherein he played the daring role of a psychotic young man.
“Till death. Wrote, produced and directed this in the early/mid 90s. I remember running stark naked on the streets of Festac for this movie. The poster itself…hmmmm. Way ahead of the period,” he wrote.
The psychological thriller featured several movie stars like Pete Edochie, Ejike Asiegbu, Charles Okafor, and Joan Stephens.
The actor, who is from Anambra state, came into the spotlight after starring in ‘Glamour Girls’, a 1994 movie, where he took the role of a guy who is fond of cooking and washing his wife’s underwear.
Obi has established himself as a popular name in the Nigerian film industry since then with several hit projects like ‘Idemili’, ‘Poka Messiah’ and ‘The Harvest’.
Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
My attention was caught recently by this apparently succinct summation of the idea and personality of Nigeria as a movie, with all its implications, its innuendos, its positives, and of course deprecations – a movie analogy somewhat suggests something which does not deserve serious attention. True? You know, the ‘Alawada kerikeri’ type of movie which we often used to refer to unserious people. It was on Arise TV that I heard Ojy Okpe first refer to the country as a movie on account of the different dramatic and perhaps absurd events happening simultaneously, by both state and non-state actors. I recall a visiting American colleague Professor Jeffery Renard Allen describing driving on Ikorodu Road in Lagos as akin to ‘a sci-fi experience, no rules, no order yet no colliding cars! Little did I know that that description would invariably be applied to the homeland to about two hundred million black people.
Indeed, if Nigeria is a movie, we can aver with mock seriousness that its script is written (or improvisations) in the tradition of ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, crystallised in ideological and philosophical thinking by Martin Esslin inthe seminal essay The Myth of Sisyphus and epitomised by the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s iconic play Waiting for Godot! In our clime, Ola Rotimi’s play Holding Talks – a play in which characters prefer to hold discussions while the world is crumbling – captures the absurdist attitude and dimensions of governance in our beloved, boisterousbut beleaguered and endangered conglomeration of diverse and disparate people.
There is drama in government and by government. Drama by the presidency. Even in the presidency, there is drama of silence, keeping mute while herdsmen are murdering hundreds as in Agatu and Uwheru, but crying loud when 49 persons are killed on the Nigeria-Niger border! Drama by state governors, as some of them spend more time in Abuja than in the State House of their States. Drama by terrorists as they ambush Nigerian soldiers after receiving tips of intelligence from saboteurs within the army. Drama in the courts of justice and injustice.Drama against Judges as a gang of scoundrels raid the home of a Supreme Court judge on the orders of a rogue Chief Enforcer of the Law. Drama by the Nigeria Police as men and officers of the Low-morale Force mount roadblocks and criminally extort citizens whom they swore to protect from criminals. Drama by religious leaders. Drama by kidnappers and bandits. Drama by some so-called opinion leaders taking sides with Boko Haram and bandits. Drama by IPOB and ‘unknown’ gun men in South-eastern Nigeria. Jail break dramas. Drama during official testimonies in the National Assembly like the one which notoriously gave birth to ‘off your mike!Drama when soldiers were ordered to fire shots at protesters during the anti-SARS protests last year. Drama about how Nnamdi Kanu was abducted from Kenya and brought to Nigeria. Drama about the freedom of herdsmen to attack and maim without official actions from government of the day.
Drama on how northern governors could freely meet but how a southern governors’ meeting is viewed with suspicion, about how some South-eastern governors refused to attend a meeting of southern governors because they are eyeing the presidency to be awarded to them by the northern establishment for good behaviour. Drama about how the banned IPOB virtually rules the Southeast, giving orders on sit-at-home or participating in elections, governing the elected governors, and pushing an Igbo agenda that could hurt Igbo business models in the country. Drama about kidnappers striking in the home state of the Commander-in-chief by cheekily abducting a traditional ruler and girls from a school. Drama about bandits kidnapping an officer from Nigeria Defence Academy, the elite school for training officers in the Nigeria Army. Who says Nigeria is not a movie? Drama! Drama!! Drama!!!
A movie is created for one purpose – to entertain an audience. Generally, we are taught in communication studies that movies are created to entertain, educate, and inform. These days, movies also succeed in confusing the people, with notions of alternative truths and fake narratives, superimposed pictures, and distortions. There are different types of movies produced by different entities. So, we have Nollywood, Hollywood, Bollywood, Kannywood and others. Within Nollywood we have different types of movies dictated by the taste of the producers and the target audience, some badly produced flicks with no sense of direction, hastily put together for profit. There are some that are culturally offensive, steeped in fetish and the occult, and ritually portraying our world as that of witchcraft and juju and superstition. There is the action movie, the 007 seven type which thrills one to no end. What about the horror movie which drives insane fear into the audience? Or the ones which travel into the future, predicting that which is to come? There are movies which dwell on our anachronistic past in a romantic way. There also movies which dwell on the absurd or the foolish or the mundane and jesting. So, which type of movie is Nigeria? Is our country a potpourri of different types of movies?
By convention and regulation, a movie must have a director, a producer, and actors with carefully assigned roles, dancers, musicians, makeup artists and all the supporting crew of technicians. The director knows from the outset what he wants to achieve. If Nigeria is a movie, who is the director? Are there trained actors in Movie Nigeria? Are the actors picked from the roadside? Are the actors following a script or they are left to improvise on themes, following their own thoughts, biases and ideas and idiosyncrasies? Who are the scriptwriters? Are there scriptwriters? Is there a scriptwriter who revels in the macabre and outrageous with thirst for spilling innocent blood? Is the scriptwriter satisfied with the horror that is North-eastern Nigeria? The killing field that is Kaduna? The travesty that is the judiciary? The assault on freedom to protest? Assault on free movement? Satisfied with the orphanhood of the Naira? Happy with what inflation is doing to both middle income and poor families? What is the goal or mission of this silent director?
If Nigeria is indeed a movie, if Nigeria is worth branding as a movie, designed to inform and educate, it needs an experienced director and a competent supporting crew, with a sense of history, connection with history, connection with the common good and deep compassion for the poor ordinary people of the country. A movie is usually a reflection of its environment. Following the requirements of a good movie and the story it tells, Nigeria is a bad movie, a bad horror movie without focus, and proper direction. It is a movie that scares its audience from the theatre. That is the reason millions of youths have ignored government and devised means of survival. That is the unfortunate reason Destination Europe, Destination America, Destination Anywhere Abroad hasbecome the sign song of desperation by the men and women whose lot it ought to be to lead the country in future. Movie Nigeria is a sad and bad horror movie, calling for re-casting and remodelling!
Mo Abudu, Ebony Life Studios CEO has announced that she’s teaming up with Will Packer Productions to develop an untitled project based on Evan Ratliff’s Bloomberg article, “The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master.”
The companies won the rights in a highly competitive bid and have set up the project at Universal Pictures.
Ratliff’s article digs into the story of Nigerian Instagram influencer Ramon Abbas.
The man otherwise known as Ray Hushpuppi, or the Billionaire Gucci Master, is alleged to have perfected a simple internet scam that allowed him to launder millions of dollars.
Packer and Abudu’s project is described as a globetrotting action thriller — a hybrid of Catch Me If You Can and The Usual Suspects.
Will Packer and James Lopez will produce through their Will Packer Productions, with Abudu producing for EbonyLife.
Confirming the news, Mo Abudu said the rights were won after a highly contested derby by several producers and is now set up at Universal Pictures, after pitching the ideas with Packer and Lopez.
The movie and TV producer further stated that EbonyLife’s position is to ensure the depth and authenticity of this film is told.
“EbonyLife Studios is partnering with Will Packer Productions to develop an untitled project based on the Bloomberg article “The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master” by Evan Ratliff.
“When the Hushpuppi story made headlines last year, I pitched the story idea to @willpowerpacker and James Lopez. They bought the idea and as headlined in this press release, together we won the rights to the Bloomberg article by Evan Ratliff mentioned above. The rights were won after a highly contested derby by several producers and is now set up at Universal Pictures. The globetrotting action thriller project is said to be a hybrid of CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and USUAL SUSPECTS.
“It’s a dream come true to be working with WIll Packer Productions and Universal Pictures on this project.
“Just as a refresher, Will Packer Productions and Universal Pictures need no introductions. WPP has released a number of blockbusters that include …… ‘‘Girls Trip”, “Think Like a Man Too”, “Ride Along”, “Think Like a Man”, “Takers”, “Obsessed”, “Breaking In” and “Stomp the Yard” and Universal Pictures with over a 100 years in the business of movie making in Hollywood, have produced some of the biggest titles in the world.
Former senator representing Kogi west, Dino Melaye, has starred in yet another movie as a kidney disorder patient alongside Diane Russet, a Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) 2019 housemate.
Melaye took to his social media page on Monday to share the trailer to ‘The Bean Super Shaped Hero’ — a movie that comes as his second following his cast alongside Femi Fani-Kayode, former aviation minister, for ‘Silent Prejudice‘.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CAV0LwZH0-V/
In the trailer, Melaye is seen leaving for his place of work while kissing his wife and daughter goodbye but things would later go awry after the politician collapsed before he’s rushed to the hospital.
As his secretary reveals details to him on the operations of one of his office’s departments, Melaye feels inconvenienced, so he unfastens his tie and tries to pick up his suit only to go down on the floor.
TheNewsGuru recalls that Melaye had earlier made his Nollywood debut in the movie ‘Equity Unbound’.