When two British-born powerhouses get together — Idris Elba, an actor-director-producer of Sierra Leone, Creole and Ghanaian descent, and Nigerian-rooted Mo Abudu, largely considered the go-between for African content to the rest of the world — they have a powerful chemistry. Remarkably, though, they’ve never made anything together.
This is about to change. In March, the two quietly announced they would join forces to empower and uplift talent from Africa through their respective companies: Elba’s Green Door Pictures and Abudu’s EbonyLife TV. It’s a subject of shared passion for both. Throughout Elba’s prolific career, he’s continued to be involved in stories that are related to the African diaspora, from his early work on TV drama Sometimes in April, or The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, to his upcoming untitled Ghana project, which he will direct and star in. He’s long championed under-heard voices, and in 2016, he delivered a powerful address to the UK Parliament about the need for greater diversity and representation across the sector.
In tandem, Abudu has spent her career trying to put African stories on the global map. After a career in recruitment, the straight-shooter pivoted to become a talk-show host, launching Moments with Mo in 2008 and interviewing the likes of Hillary Clinton and Christine Lagarde in her African-syndicated show. That show eventually generated EbonyLife Studios and sparked her mission to push African stories to the global market.
When we connect with Elba and Abudu one Monday in London, it’s the first time they have met in person, but they interact like old friends. With common backgrounds but differing perspectives, it’s clear there’s a unity in their mission: African stories have long been marginalized by the global film community, and they are going to change that.
DEADLINE: What are some of the preconceptions about African content that you’re battling right now?
IDRIS ELBA: General knowledge about the African film industry is anchored around a very specific time. That specific time doesn’t account for what happened prior, such as the Nigerian film explosion in the 1970s and what is happening in the future. Everyone now centers everything that happens in Africa around what is described as “Nollywood.”
MO ABUDU: Do you know the history behind the word? A Canadian journalist came to Nigeria and decided that he was going to give us the name Nollywood, and that was it. It’s stuck since then. I hate the word Nollywood. The term Nollywood itself is a bad genre of filmmaking. We all know what Nollywood is supposed to represent — it’s the VHS films that were made back in the day. So, to still be called Nollywood, for me, is a no. We need to use terms like African filmmakers or Nigerian filmmakers.
DEADLINE: That’s true — it’s a lazy label to group together a huge span of differing cultures on one continent. Many Indian filmmakers despise the term “Bollywood” as well. Let’s talk about you two and this initiative you’re setting up. First, how long have you guys known each other?
ABUDU: Until today, we haven’t physically met. This is our first real-life meeting. We’ve had Zooms and phone calls.
ELBA: I’ve known of Mo and her work for a while. Our circles have been adjacent for years — probably since the early 2000s. When I started to see what she was doing with EbonyLife TV, I saw this woman that was coming up. She’s different; she’s got a voice, and she’s got perspective. I saw that. And meanwhile, I made my first African film, Sometimes in April, and then I went to Botswana for The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. So, it felt like this journey that finds us here today was inevitably going to happen. Idris Elba at the global premiere of Luther: The Fallen Sun in London
ABUDU: I wanted to partner with someone who knows African filmmakers and has the ambition to go further and go wider and take African filmmaking to the international stage. It’s the synergy of Idris having a global perspective and me having a local perspective that works, and we can figure out how we go local for global. I have an obsession with making a big blockbuster that the world is going to see, but putting things into context for Africa, we don’t have the budget. That’s why, no matter what we do in Africa… How global are these films going to be? I’d love for there to be some synergy between our stars and the Hollywood stars. It would help our local projects, incomes and revenues grow.
DEADLINE: Mo, EbonyLife Media has several co-production deals in the works with Netflix, Sony Pictures Television, Westbrook Studios, BBC Studios, Starz and Lionsgate among others. What’s the status of these?
ABUDU: The process of moving from signing development to production can be time-consuming, but we’ve made significant strides with a number of projects. Some of these are being pitched to streamers and broadcasters, while others are going straight from development to production as our partners have their own platforms. But we’re still facing challenges when it comes to gatekeepers who are resistant to new stories from our continent with different backdrops. Mo Abudu at the Series Mania awards ceremony in Lille, France
DEADLINE: Is this where Idris comes in? Tell me about this initiative between the two of you and your companies and your plans for championing filmmakers coming from the African diaspora.
ELBA: I think where our partnership differs slightly from the sort of agreements that Mo has is that I’m in a position as an actor to be able to greenlight projects based on if I want to be in them and if I like them, on varied budgets.
ABUDU: That’s the power Idris brings. Not only does Idris have a production company, but he’s also a great talented actor that people can relate to. He’s also very accessible — you’re able to call him and discuss ideas with him. Even though he’s very busy, he will make the time. That makes all the difference. He’s a partner that is ready to listen.
ELBA: I’m aware of my position, and I want to bring people into the room. We are identifying stories that Mo and I want to make, and we have a pyramid of them. But to get the right combination, we need to have the right strategic partners. I don’t want to make five films and find that maybe two of them are good. I want to do two or three films that are amazing. This is a long-term partnership.
ABUDU: The other component to our work is capacity-building and upskilling filmmakers. What I’ve done for the last three years is run the EbonyLife Creative Academy in Lagos, funded by the Lagos State Government, for students who can’t afford it. We’re taking that model, and we want to try and roll it across the continent. We’re still trying to sort out how that would work, but we know that in order for Africa to have the best filmmakers, we must give them the tools to do so. So many I’ve met are confident and self-made. If they are given capacity early, they’re just going to fly.
ELBA: Africa needs talent and capacity. It’s important for us to amplify the voices in the continent. If we can build a footprint that is pan-African, then it allows for more diversity in terms of what’s on offer to Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Paramount and all of those guys.
ABUDU: This is a market that is totally undiscovered. Kamala Harris gave a speech and said that in 2050 one in every four people will be African. What does that say? We have the youngest youth population in the globe. Look at what we did with the music industry. Afrobeats have totally found their way, and those guys have grown by themselves. They’ve gone out, made music, and become global stars without much support. The film industry is harder. It takes more work because of the length of the process as well as finding talents that people are going to recognize, but it’s possible.
ELBA: Afrobeats is a good analogy. But the interesting thing about Afrobeats, and music-making technically, is that the democratization of technology is what has allowed people to make those records: you can make a record with your laptop just as Michael Jackson did in a big studio. You could even do it on your phone. Filmmaking is different, but think of what could happen on this digital highway.
ABUDU: The thing is, these guys can spend a week making a two-minute video. We, unfortunately, cannot — we sometimes have to shoot 10 pages a day on a script to make sure that we stay within budget. In Hollywood, how many pages do you guys shoot in a day?
ELBA: It really depends. For a big-budget film, maybe two or three pages.
ABUDU: Two pages! That’s crazy! Amen to that, because, of course, you’re going to have a better-looking film if you’re spending one day doing two or three pages.
DEADLINE: What are your thoughts when streamers and anyone else looking at growth in the international sector says that Africa is the next market? It’s a massive market with diverse cultures and countries. What do you think about them trying to infiltrate Africa?
ABUDU: Take K-Drama, for example. A show like Squid Game was budgeted at $2 million an episode, which I think is a decent budget for a series like that. But we still don’t have those sorts of budgets locally yet, and we’re told by our partners that budgets will grow when subscribers grow. But it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Which comes first? How do you get subscribers if you don’t have the shows? We’re told the numbers are growing, and they’re getting subscribers based on the budgets that are being invested in the shows that we do. But we have the same costs in production. It doesn’t cost me any less to rent an area or equipment than it does in, say, England, but our margins are lower.
Another challenge we face is the lack of scriptwriters. Because there has been very little investment in Black filmmakers, there are no writers — and the best writers are busy. The new writers can’t skill up if no one commissions them. Again, it’s a chicken-and-egg situation. It’s all part of the cycle. Idris Elba in ‘Beast’
DEADLINE: Idris, tell me a little bit about what you’ve been doing in Ghana to improve the access and advance the situation there.
ELBA: In Ghana, for the last three years, I’ve been working with the government to help them understand these incentive packages around filmmaking for Africans and how essential it is to put in policies and mechanisms for filmmakers and creatives that allow them to utilize investments from international partners and stretch it further within Africa. Ghana has committed to — and hopefully, it will be done by June — a policy or system that will mean more money is spent locally. Hopefully, I can use the system for the film I want to shoot in Ghana in December. If we’re looking for streamers to give us more money for film, it’s going to be a while before that happens, so we have to find mechanisms that allow our value to be raised internally. Netflix’s fan base for African films is mostly outside of Africa, so we have to get to a place where subscribers are on the continent.
DEADLINE: Can you explain specifically what Ghana is committing to? Is it a tax credit or a rebate?
ELBA: Economies like Ghana don’t have the money like other film capitals, so they just want the business. What we’ve constructed is something where we won’t charge you taxes, or import taxes, which accumulate to quite a big part of your budget. I spoke to His Excellency [Papa Owusu-Ankomah], and the specifics are still being ironed out. The Ghanaian Film Authority is also working alongside three partners, and we’re building a studio there. The reason why we’re building this, and why we’re keen on the policies, is because we want to leave a legacy behind and attract these filmmakers.
DEADLINE: What can you tell us about this project you’re shooting in Ghana in December?
ELBA: We’re still figuring out the name of the film [Deadline revealed after going to press that the project would be called Infernus, which Millennium is selling in Cannes], but I’m going to direct and star in it. The story is about a guy who heads up a department of the United Nations that looks after the relocation of refugees, and he finds some refugees where they shouldn’t be. I’m taking part of the storyline to Ghana.
DEADLINE: Let’s talk about the young population in Africa. More than 60 percent of the continent is under the age of 25. I’ve recently spent some time in Saudi Arabia, which is ramping up its efforts in the international film and TV space, and they have a very young population as well. While their economy is very different from Ghana’s, there’s been some prejudice in the media regarding how it’s perceived from an international perspective. What would you say the challenges are about this on the African continent?
ELBA: Prejudice is a fair word, and sustained prejudice is what has happened to Africa, which we have to fight. There’s a misconception that everything is corrupt, conflict is everywhere, people will get malaria, all of that kind of thing. Stories are where we can make a difference. Mo and I have lots of different types of stories — our creative juices are flowing — and they’re African and about African people, but they have an international appeal. Look at what Korean films have done. We have to start somewhere, and we just want to amplify these voices. That’s why Mo and I are doing this. We’re coming together to move it forward.
ABUDU: It’s really important to find the right people that have a shared vision. Different visions can come together and make things work. I’m obsessed with getting a global blockbuster to come out of Africa, something that will put us on the map.
You have to understand that Africa is a continent that has seen a lot of adversity, so we’re not going to write Disney movies. But it’s starting to diversify, and I think it’s important that it does because you don’t just want to make movies about conflict and hard times.Idris Elba
DEADLINE: How can Hollywood and Europe step up their commitment and interest?
ABUDU: What’s frustrating is looking at the amount of content that gets repeated, and meanwhile, we don’t get a chance to be heard. The other day I saw an advert for The Three Musketeers. Again? How many times are you going to make The Three Musketeers? If you take an African historical story to a studio, they tell you, “We’re not sure what to do.” OK, so you don’t want to do African period film, but you want to make The Three Musketeers 50 million times? I don’t get that. We’re not saying you have to make every story from Africa that is pitched to you, but if you’re doing 10 period pieces from Europe, couldn’t you do one or two that are African? Why shouldn’t the world know? And why should it just be limited to the slave trade?
There is more to us than this, and I keep saying it. These commissioners, these gatekeepers, are the ones we need to convince and say, “You need to give us the budgets to do something — you have to take a risk on something.”
DEADLINE: What are some examples of the types of stories coming out of Africa? Obviously, there are many different countries with different languages and cultures, but are there any common threads of storylines that you are seeing emerge?
ELBA: It’s a spectrum. You go to a village, and there are stories based on folklore and tradition. Then there are younger people who are wanting to tell stories about Afrofuturism.
ABUDU: There’s lots of stories of the young women of today. You’ve got Sex in the City set in New York. Why can’t we have our own versions, with young modern women living in Africa, with their own experiences, their own aspirations, their own dreams? They deserve some representation like everyone else in the world.
ELBA: You have to understand that Africa is a continent that has seen a lot of adversity, so we’re not going to write Disney movies. But it’s starting to diversify, and I think it’s important that it does because you don’t just want to make movies about conflict and hard times. I loved the Netflix show Blood Sisters. It’s a thriller, it’s about the modernization of African women, and it’s dealing with domestic violence. It’s very diverse. If there is a common thread, I’d say that Africans want to tell a version of their truth. Read the digital edition of Deadline’s Disruptors/Cannes magazine here.
ABUDU: It’s important for the world to understand our culture. Nigerian stories, specifically, can be very melodramatic, but we are melodramatic people. That is our nature. We can’t change who we are and what our culture is just for a film to travel.
DEADLINE: So what are the next steps?
ELBA: The practical next step is to identify a project to greenlight and start shooting early next year. Alongside that, we want to put the school on the map. Then we want to try and replicate the government intervention with Nigeria and make the government participate in some way. People are impatient, but things take time.
ABUDU: But that’s not to say that there isn’t movement. With us, there will be more movement because we’re determined for there to be movement. For now, it’s all hands on deck.
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