I’ve sure I’ve said it before that one of my earliest memories in life is of watching Wizard of Oz at 3 years old. If you think about it, you could probably draw a straight line from that spellbound kid way back in the past to the person I am today. A filmmaker of very catholic tastes, who loves pretty much all genres of film. Anytime someone says that we make a particular type of film, I always laugh because we have played in so many genres since we started on this journey. What I will say is that the things that cut through our filmography are themes not genres. Our worldview is generally one of realistic optimism and our films tend to reflect that.
Speaking of realistic optimism, I tend to believe that the future will be better than the past and that the next generation of filmmakers will be better than those that come before. And as part of that belief, I’ve always felt it is important that there are Nollywood scripts available to read. After all the adage “watch movies, read scripts, write pages” needs actual scripts to read. And so over the years I’ve put up a few scripts of ours for the interested many (or few). Links to them are below:
I’ve been meaning to put up more scripts, because the last ones I put up are from 2020 and we have had a whole pandemic since then. Luckily, there was a touching twitter exchange that finally prompted me to get my butt in gear and take the time to do so. Without much ado, here 5 more scripts written by me either solo or with co-writers. As always I put up a little talk and do about the scripts. It goes without saying that clicking the title will take you to the script.
Crafting a madcap adventure to appeal to Falz’s strengths and charm was one of my most satisfying writing experiences. I’m not gonna lie, my first version of this was a bit (fine; a lot) more esoteric, and more focused on the crypto of it all. This is an example of why notes are good: Zulu, Damola, Mimi, and Falz all gave very good ones as I wrangled the draft it into shape. — more fun, less crypto speak, is always good in life. As we were in prep, one of the things I reiterated to Kayode and Falz, was that the lines in the script were designed to create space for improv, so they should feel free to go to town — and they really did. So if you read this as you watch, pay attention to how Falz’s improv kept the meaning and spirit of the words on the page whilst he put it in his own inimitable style. As a random aside, Quam’s Money also generated a New York Times’ review. It was really cool that they grokked what we were trying to achieve and vibed with it.
This was a story that I had been noodling on for a few years before we finally decided to make it. I’m always a sucker for coming of age stories, especially of the fish out of water bent. And this story of a rich young lawyer finding her calling in the charge and bail world hooked me from the start. The inspiration came from the time I spent around courts in 2016/2017 and seeing the different kinds of charge and bail lawyers. I imagined how one would game the charge and bail system and built a firm, and a world that did that. When the script was ready, I tapped Uyoyou Adia to direct, because I felt she had the sensibility and sensitivity to tackle the subject matter. I really liked how this turned out, and it’s a shame not enough people caught it in cinemas.
Akay Mason, now a superstar director, pitched us an idea for an homage to Nollywood in late 2020. In early 2021, we commissioned him to write it, but asked that he get a female co-writer. Akay and Uyoyou came up with a good draft of the script. I did the final work to get it production ready and we were off to the races. It’s a script, and a film, I’m really proud of. We had so much fun with all the various tropes about nollywood we put in the film. When you read (and watch) see how many you can spot. During the time of the release, every time someone mentioned one of the ones they spotted, my eyes lit up with glee.
Around the time when we were auditioning for Far From Home in 2020, there was a spate of ritual killings where young men did horrific things in the search of money. Because of the way my mind works, it crosslinked me interacting with hundreds of young men auditioning for me, and the tragedy that was affecting young men. In a moment, I knew that I wanted to make a movie about the tragedy of ritualism and the effect it has on both the people who do it and those around them. In the version we wanted to make, I knew that there were two things that we wanted to focus on: the first was that the film was going to be about a group of friends collectively going through it so we could showcase how the descent into ritutalism affected different people, and the second was that the “jazz” in the movie was not “real”, but people thought it was and acted accordingly. That the “jazz” in the film was a version of “The Law of Attraction.” — basically it worked because people believed it did. This second point in and of itself was the core of the tragedy. We commissioned Chimeka Osagwu, who was one of our writers on Far From Home, to develop the idea and paired him with Fiyin Gambo as director. Once we got his draft, I did my usual production, and character pass, to get it to the story I saw in my head at the start. I really liked how the film turned out, and how it captured the tragedy of 3 friends who got caught up in the wrong life. And yes the card at the end was a requirement of the censors.
If you can, you should always have films that you make for yourself and for me The Set Up series is all about having fun with genres. The first one was a twisty rubik’s cube of a movie, the second was still twisty but more a spy genre piece inspired by the 70s thrillers that I loved so much growing up. However unlike most of those which are lone men against the system, the core thread of The Set Up series is sisterhood. The Chike and Grace throughline was one of the most satisfying I’ve ever created. Part One was Sisters Together. Part Two was Sisters Apart. If we ever make a third one it will also be a different core genre, with the sister’s motif front and center, and with twisty added, as per usual. After all it is The Set Up.
Final Thoughts
The scripts above are the shooting drafts and I put those up because it is always a useful exercise to compare the shooting drafts to the final edits to see what was changed and why. As always these scripts are for educational purposes, please don’t send me sequel and adaptation ideas. T for tenks.
Enjoy
