Where most Nollywood best selling and celebrated movies were
shot with as little as N500,000 Edo movie Don, Lancelot Imasuen recently told
the host of a television programme that he had spent over $2m (N320m) on the
shoot of his yet to be released epic
film, Invasion 1897. The Omo No Oba of the Benin movie industry
was also emphatic when he said that the movie which celebrates the British
invasion of the ancient Benin Kingdoms in 1897, involved a cast of over 60
whites, 30 of them in Nigeria and 30 in the Europe cast.
According to the producer, scriptwriter and director,
Lancelot, a cow was slaughtered everyday for the over three weeks the Nigeria
shoot lasted. This enabled the feeding of about 300 cast each day to go
unhindered.
Apart from the feeding of the 0ver 300 cast per day there
were also an average of 10 whites from Europe that had to be catered for on a
daily basis. In his words, “The amount
of money spent on the acquisition of locations only is more than enough to
shoot a first class Nollywood movie. A
total of $2m was budgeted for the epic movie that is to retell the invasion of
the Benin Kingdom by the British colonialist from the perspective of the Benin
narrator. That was how we discovered a palace of the Benin kingdom built about
200 years ago. There was another of such constructed by the creative ability of
the natives a hundred years past. The ship that took the innocent Oba to
Calabar on exile was practically built and put on the sea. In all, it was only
a success because of the fatherly support we got from the palace of the Benin
Monarch.”
However the movie is set to be premiered this month July at Benin.
Thereafter a premiere will be done on October 1st in Lagos and the
train shall sail across Europe.l
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