Gabriel, frontline director, Kunle Afolayan‘s actor brother features alongside Temi, daughter of billionaire, Femi Otedola in the older Afolayan‘s upcoming movie, Citation, eelive.ng has learnt.
Gabriel Afolayan‘s casting is particularly exciting as it is the first time, he would be starting in any of his brother’s films even though he is one of Nigeria’s most competent actor. He however told a world press conference addressed by his director brother to reveal the cast and collaborators on Thursday that :
“There is no film Kunle shoots that he doesn’t give me the script to go through. So, it’s not true that we don’t work together. I just work more behind the scenes.”
Citation is packed with characters both familiar to fans and new to the franchise. It features a stellar cast of Nollywood heavy weights including Joke Silva, Ini Edo, Sadiq Daba, Gabriel Afolayan, and Yomi Fash Lanso among others. The cast list also includes popular Haitian-French actor, Jimmy Jean Louis and Ghanaian , Adjetey Anang.
In order to fulfill the goal of the film, Afolayan disclosed “I don’t just look out for popular faces or people with a million followers on Instagram, I look out for talent.” According to the award-winning filmmaker, his company is partnering with Ford Foundation on the project, which has been designed to propel women to aspire to become successful leaders by providing counter examples to negative gender stereotypes.
Afolayan disclosed that the movie will be shot with the new Canon EOS C500 MarK II camera – the first time the camera will be used in Africa. This is also a measure of the second-time the director is receiving from Canon Central and North Africa is giving Afolayan, which held his hands in the production of his down -to- earth Mokalik.
Written by Afolayan’s long standing collaborator, Tunde Babalola, Citation will be shot in Nigeria, Senegal and Cape Verde. The movie project also has Access Bank through its W Initiative – Africa’s premier women’s financial programme focusing on inspiring, connecting and empowering women and girls; online travel portal, Flyboku, for flights and related logistics; Ajike Peoples’ Support Centre, a Non-Governmental Organisation and pet project of Mrs. Olufolake Ajike Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, First Lady of Kwara State. The Ministry of Culture and Creative Industries in Cape Verde are main sponsors of the country’s locations of the shoot, following a meeting with Minister Abrãao Vicente and other officials during the recce, video recording of which Afolayan teased his numerous fans with last October.
Although, we still know very little about what’s in store for this much-anticipated film, Afolayan’s creative pedigree of the project, the cast members that’s been announced so far, and some intriguing early imagery have proven enough to get us really excited about what is next.