Ahead of its international premiere on the Toronto Film Festival, Genevieve Nnaji’s new movie, Lion Heart, has been acquired by Netflix and will premiere in the worldwide movie streaming site as a Netflix Original.
The film will make history as the first film to be acquired from Nigeria. NIgeria and Nollywood as an industry is the second largest movie industry in the world behind India’s Bollywood.
Lionheart is the veteran Nollywood actress' directorial debut. The film stars Nnaji in the lead role, alongside Nkem Owoh, Pete Edochie and Onyeka Onwenu.
The film’s plot revolves around Nnaji as the character Adaeze running her father’s business who ironically appoints Adaeze crude and eccentric uncle, to be the head CEO instead after experiencing health complications. More drama ensues as they find out the company is in a terrible financial state.
From the film’s trailer depiction, the film is packed with drama, comedy and excellent cinematography.
By 2009, Nollywood had surpassed Hollywood as the world's second largest movie industry by volume, right behind India's Bollywood. And in 2014, the Nigerian government released data for the first time showing Nollywood is a $3.3 billion sector, with 1844 movies produced in 2013 alone.
However, as Netflix gears up to entice the African movie streamers with more African content, the jury is still out to see them do more for the large African and Middle East Market. Early this year, Netflix announced for position of director of content acquisition for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. Based in Amsterdam, the new director will source local programming and acquire the global rights for shows and movies such as Lionheart from the region.
As pointed out by Quartz early this year, Netflix has an original production budget of $8 billion in 2018, and with lower production costs in Africa, even a fraction of that amount could transform pan-African TV and movie industry.
