Emmanuel Williams, a budding movie maker leaving who left Public Relations out of a passion for movie making. In this Interview with ADEWOYIN ADENIYI, Williams, who has produced over eight movies talks about his latest movie, Stolen Lives, premiering in September among other sundry issues.
TELL us about your new movie and why you did it. Stolen Lives actually talks about the social vices affecting modern day Nigerian youths which include rape, drug abuse, cultism, and poor family values. I made the movie because I looked at occurrences around me and to an extent some of my friends and I said, “no, something has to be done” and the only way I felt it could be done was through visuals, because we’ve talked and talked, and nothing has happened.
We all know that Nigerians have poor reading habits, you print something, distribute fliers and people throw it out. We tend to stick to what we see, and do to pass the message across, I felt ok, and I could do a movie. A friend had a near rape experience, so I just infused it and I said rape, drug abuse, cultism, all those things can be joined as one because most of the rapists are probably under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so I decided that it is different from the normal story, but that will also pass a message across so that is why I decided to do that movie. It was directed Emmanuel Mang Eme.
What makes this movie different from other movies with the same story line?
Its unique, to say the truth it’s a unique movie because when I came up with the idea I brought in some of the best hands in Nollywood, and we actually wrote that script with some true life experiences, although most movies are not made from true life experiences.
Infusing true life experiences into one story, what also makes it unique is that we used people that could identify with one or two of the problems the movie talks about so it’s not like we simply cast anybody and put them in the movie, some of the actors have the experience, some of the had passed through something similar, so it was easy for them to express what they felt during the movie so that’s what makes it different.
Tell us some of these actors that featured in the movie
Toyin Alausa, known most especially in the series part of Nollywood and when I invited her to this project, she told me that she could align with it because she had a child at a tender age, and the movie also talks about teen parenthood so it was easy for her to interpret that story which we were unaware of prior to that. I should not mention some other names based on the fact that they are celebs and they wouldn’t want the story out but about two or three of them could identify with the story.
Who is the script writer?
Tunde Babalola, the award winning script writer of Kunle Afolayan’s October 1, Rita Dominic’s The Meeting, Alero’s Symphony which he did for Malta Guinness Box Office, just to mention a few of jobs that he has done..
Who are the cast?
Celebrated actors and actresses, the likes of Alex Ekubo, Ik Ogbona, Ruth Kadiri, Beverly Osu, Tayo Sogbola ,also a new girl Owumi Ugbeye, who played the lead role, she was actually in Shuga, also Jide Kosoko, Bukky Wright, Kunle Coker, Biola Williams to mention a few.
What are your plans for the new movie?
It’s going to the cinemas September 11, and will premiere in August, my dream for the movie apart from just showing in the cinemas is that we will do a tour of universities, as university students are our major focus, and most of those social vices believe it or not starts in the universities.
My plan is to take it to about twenty five universities in Nigeria , and when it’s done probably get someone ,maybe a first lady to take it and then print several DVDS, and distribute to secondary school students, because from secondary school, awareness is heightened, and the need to acquire careful decision making skills is paramount.
Don’t you think distributing to secondary school students will encourage piracy?
The truth is that you can’t stop piracy; you can only hope that it will not be much, but distribution is to ensure that it actually get to them so even if the pirates decide to pirate it they will lose because they will sell while we will be giving free. No one will pay for what is available free.
Don’t you think the movie is too star-studded?
There is one thing we put into consideration during the cast selection, youths identify with role models, so when you are doing something of this nature, it is wise to use people they can identify with. There are very good actors who are not A listers, the question is whether your target audience want to sit-down and watch so we decided to use people that youths can identify with, which is why we featured A list actors and actresses.
But there should be a way of introducing upcoming actors…
(Cuts in) the there was actually one new act and she played a lead role which is probably not done anywhere, though there were other new faces but probably they didn’t take the lead. The A listers I mentioned are people that took lead role, there are also new entrants in the movie but not leads because we intend in more of our productions to use more new people since it’s a youth based production , and the production company is also youth based ,we intend to use more in recent production so we took two here and three there as we cannot use them all at once.
What is the name of your production company?
The name is Kross entertainment; this is the first movie for Kross entertainment but not the first for me as a producer.
How did you get into movie production?
I actually started off working in a PR firm and we did lots of production for government agencies and that was where I learnt production and then in that way I started meeting people who were involve production and they will be like we saw what your office did can you get someone to do something like that for us and I said I can do it, I actually handle most of this things and that was how it all started.
By Gods grace I have eight movies to my credit, and three yet to be released, two were shot In South Africa and one was shot in Nigeria. One is The Living Legend, it parades artistes from South Africa, Ghana, and two from Nigeria .It will comes out sometime in August, as we are just putting finishing touches to it. I did Well Danger live and its actually available online now, it was made for Gabi production, and two were made for Highway production, and I have produced two of their movies, one of which was Behind Enemy Line.
Those were what gave me my break into Nollywood and gave me the idea to put Stolen Lives together, so I can say that Stolen Lives might or will be a master piece. We are probably not Kunle Afolayan, Lancelot Imasuen but in our own young generation I think it will be called a master piece, perhaps not to match those that are above but it will be a master piece for the cinemas to accept it gives us credit.
So is Stolen Lives your first movie?
Yes it’s my first movie as Emmanuel Williams for Kross entertainment.
What inspired you into making movies?
I do watch movies, I watch American movies, especially black American movies and also Nollywood movies and what most people produce in Nollywood I won’t call it rubbish because some creativeness went into that production but it wasn’t really what we could stand up as a nation and say we are producing, and I studied them, and said how can I do this and decided to go into full time movie production.
I can be creative and I also have people that are also creative, and then you watch some Nollywood movies, and you are like “did somebody write this story?” Now I made a movie and somebody will tell you that its one of those movies, I actually have friends that tell me that they don’t watch Nigerian movies because it’s full of rubbish and I told them that it can be better, there are people I actually sent the trailer of this movie to and they , on watching they asked me to keep up the good work, and please do not go the way others went.
I wanted to do movies that will touch people, and would delight the audience, that people will want to sit down and watch, not things that we cannot be proud of or boast of, that is what inspired me, when I saw a man like Desmond Elliot, who has been an inspiration. Looking at where he is coming from, and the type of movies he is presently shooting, you will see that there is a world of difference. And I said if someone like this can come out as an actor, and is now the kind of man people want to watch I should join this trend. The foregoing inspire me that we can do better, and can make Nigeria proud.
How was it been since you started this journey?
It is still rough, the Nigeria society does not support young minds, there are young people who want to do a lot of things, but have no support, and nobody wants to listen. When I started this journey, it was very rough and to tell you the truth this movie was shot on loan from banks, individuals and people that saw that look I like this your dream I don’t have much but this is my contribution, and that was how we raised money to shoot this movie .
As I am talking to you now we are indebted to some banks and individuals, so it was rough and it is still rough. Even if I want to shoot a movie tomorrow, nobody will come out because our people do not see youngsters as people that can do big things, which is so sad so I think it’s very challenging.
What are your expectations for Stolen Lives?
My expectation is I want it to be a block buster, I want it to have the kind of reception that a movie like Thirty days in Atlanta has, I want it to have the kind of reception that October1 has, you know my expectation for it is very high, I might probably be criticized in some parts of the movie but we all know that nobody reaches perfection, but with what we have I want it to be the talk of the town.
Do you see yourself acting later in the future?
I am a very shy person, like there was a role in the movie and we needed someone to take the role because the person who is assigned the role failed to show because he was on another set somewhere, so my director asked me to get on set, and do it but I refused I don’t know how to act (laughs) but fortunately, Bukky Wright’s son Ojay was on set to visit his mum, so we asked him to take the role, and he did. It was a plus for us to have mother and son on the set.
So instead of acting I would rather get people that are good into my set rather than get into it because I am not an actor, just a creative person.
