According to Kunle Afolayan, the well-known streaming service Netflix is pressuring him to turn his most recent hit film, Anikulapo, into a television series.
He claimed that Netflix urged him to first make a movie, and if it was successful, a series would be created, despite his initial desire to turn the film into a television show.
This was stated by Afolayan in an interview with the Guardian UK that was published on Friday.
The filmmaker said, “I’ve been working on Aníkúlápó for six years. Originally, I wanted to make a series, but I shopped it and kept telling people that this movie would be bigger than Game of Thrones.
“Eventually, Netflix told me to make a movie first since I believed in the project that much, and if it became a success, we’d develop a series.”
‘Anikulapo’, set in the 17th century ancient Oyo kingdom, premiered on Netflix on September 30, 2022.
A week after its premiere, the movie became the most-watched non-English film on Netflix, with a cumulative 8.7m streaming hours.
“Right now, Netflix is the one urging me to start making the series. I knew we made a great film and that it’d start conversations, but I didn’t know it’d do as well as it has done,” Afolayan said.
Oscars selection committee NGV recalls that despite the positive reviews Anikulapo has gotten in countries all over the world since its premiere, the Nigerian Official Selection Committee (NOSC) for the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) didn’t approve of it passing through the nomination process for 2023 Academy Awards.
Expressing his disappointment on his movie rejection, Kunle Afolayan via Instagram wrote “I am so pleased and delighted that the whole world has decided to tag ANIKULAPO film a masterpiece even though the Nigeria Oscar selection committee think its not worth submitting for the Oscars. Will keep doing my own thing”
The Nigeria Oscars committee which is led by Chineze Anyaene-Abonyi and responsible for submitting a Nigerian film in the International Feature Film (IFF) category of the Oscars.
Members of the committee are; CHINEZE ANYAENE – ABONYI (Chair person), Ego Boyo, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, John Njamah, MAHMOOD ALI-BALOGUN, Stephanie Linus, Shaibu Husseini, BRUCE AYONOTE, Izu Ojukwu, ODUBAWO ADETOKUNBO, Moses Babatope, Yibo Koko, Meg Otanwa and Kenneth Gyang.
