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Jay-Z released his autobiography, Decoded, in 2010. Five years before this, he’d completed his autobiography, but he said he didn’t want to release it. He shared why, despite working with another writer and completing the book, he no longer felt prepared to share it with the public.

Jay-Z didn’t want to release his autobiography

In the early 2000s, Jay-Z worked with writer and filmmaker dream hampton on his autobiography, The Black Book. When he received the completed manuscript from his co-author, though, he realized he wasn’t ready to share it with the world.

“I know that people really want to know about me, and I thought I was Ok with it, but as it got closer and closer, I said, ‘What am I doing?’ And then when I really got [the manuscript], I was like [pantomimes fainting],” he told Rolling Stone in 2005. “Just someone having your life in their hands made me like,...

NBA all-star Joel Embiid’s Miniature Géant, in collaboration with Lebron James’ athlete empowerment brand Uninterrupted, has unveiled plans for its latest project, “Backline,” a narrative feature about African athletes breaking into professional American football.

Inspired by the true stories of current NFL athletes, “Backline” follows two Nigeran friends who aim to fulfill their dreams of playing professional football in America. Written and directed by Editi Effiong (“The Black Book”), production is set to begin in 2025. Filming will be split between Nigeria and the United States.

“‘Backline’ is a story about the undefeatable strength of the human spirit, of hope, of friendship, and a drive to rise above one’s difficulties. From the moment I spoke to the young athletes who actually made the journey to play football in the U.S., telling this story has been a sweet obsession,” said Effiong. “We are excited to welcome Joel Embiid, Miniature...

In Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Black Book, there’s a story about a mannequin maker and his underground workshop. The craftsman believes that after the introduction of cinema, people began to lose their natural gestures and now simply imitate the movements and behaviors of actors they see on the big screen. To preserve natural and native mannerisms, he undertakes an immense archival project: He makes mannequins of people performing small gestures in great detail. I’m curious what the craftsman would do faced with generative AI. AI film festivals and competitions are growing in popularity. Last May, the second annual Runway AI […]

The post Subtle Inconsistencies: Filmmakers and Generative AI in 2024 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

In Orhan Pamuk’s novel The Black Book, there’s a story about a mannequin maker and his underground workshop. The craftsman believes that after the introduction of cinema, people began to lose their natural gestures and now simply imitate the movements and behaviors of actors they see on the big screen. To preserve natural and native mannerisms, he undertakes an immense archival project: He makes mannequins of people performing small gestures in great detail. I’m curious what the craftsman would do faced with generative AI. AI film festivals and competitions are growing in popularity. Last May, the second annual Runway AI […]

The post Subtle Inconsistencies: Filmmakers and Generative AI in 2024 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Rio De Janeiro — Latin America’s largest creativity event, Rio2C, will gather over June 4-9 at the Cidade das Artes complex, in Rio de Janeiro, about 50,000 participants, up from 44,000 last year, including some 1,600 speakers and representatives of about 1,100 companies.

Modelled after SXSW, the fifth in-person edition of Rio2C will feature over 500 panels designed to promote the convergence of film/TV, music, innovation, tech, games, publishing, science, fashion, sustainability and sports.

Rio2C 2024, which has “The Age of Awareness” as the central theme, opens Tuesday, June 4 with five summits, followed by three days of conferences and the market. The event wraps on the June 8-9 weekend with Festivalia, majorly attended by music and tech fans.

Virtually all big international film and TV groups established in Brazil will be at Rio2C. Some of them will present sessions highlighting aspects of their operations and new projects, such as Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery/Max,...

Exclusive: Zero Gravity Management has signed Nigerian filmmaker Editi Effiong, whose debut feature The Black Book last year established itself as Netflix’s most viewed English-language African film.

Debuting at No. 3 on the platform in September 2023, The Black Book made Netflix’s Top 10 in more than 69 countries. The revenge thriller centers on Paul Edima (Richard Mofe-Damijo), a bereaved deacon who takes justice into his own hands when his son is framed for a kidnapping, fighting a corrupt police gang to absolve him. Effiong wrote, directed and produced the film, which was made for $1 million.

A creative entrepreneur with business interests in advertising, technology and film, Effiong in 2018 founded Anakle Films, a company dedicated to telling the next generation of African stories through film, which also saw Netflix snap up its first two theatrical releases, Up North and The Setup. In 2020, the company partnered with the U.S. Mission in Nigeria and U.

Exclusive: 3Point0 Labs has followed up recent strategic moves by signing In the Summers co-producer Luz Films.

Headed by Sergio Lira, Lynette Coll and Cristobal Güell, Luz was created with a mission to make Latino-focused prestige and elevated-genre content from diverse creatives and producers in the film and TV space. Its debut film, In the Summers, was a prize winner at Sundance earlier this year.

“Sergio, Lynette, and Cristobal bring such an authentic desire to foster family and community in everything they do,” said Andrew Cutrow, Chief Business Officer and Head of the Entertainment division of 3Point0 Labs. “They bring a vision that is so core to 3Point0’s mission to build communities and infrastructure globally. Luz is a rocket ship and we are so humbled to be a part of their growth as they take off.”

As we revealed at the time, Luz Films launched in January with former...

Exclusive: 3Point0 Labs, the talent management house headed by former CAA agent and Francis Ngannou manager Marquel Martin, is launching a talent and literary advisory division with the signing of The Black Book producer Anakle Films.

3Point0 Labs is best known for owner Martin’s work with UFC lineal heavyweight world champion and boxer Ngannou, who is set to fight Britain’s Anthony Joshua on Friday (March 8). It launched in in 2022 after Martin exited his combat sports agent role at CAA, from which he had placed Mma star Ngannou in Fast & Furious film F9.

It has underscored the launch of3Point0 Labs Talent & Literary Management by signing U.S.-Nigerian producer Anakle Films, which is led by founder Editi Effiong, who wrote, produced and directed Netflix’s action thriller film The Black Book. Mimi Bartels, former general manager of FilmOne Studios and a major player in Nollywood, is co-founder.

The anticipated goldrush for African creators sparked by Netflix’s 2016 entry into the market hasn’t entirely come to fruition, though the influx of investment from local and global streaming platforms has nevertheless been transformative for Africa’s screen industries. Budgets, production values and outputs are rising, and breakout hits — such as Netflix’s Nigerian thriller “The Black Book” and South African teen drama “Blood & Water” — highlight the power of global streaming services to deliver African stories to audiences around the world.

Yet as evidenced by Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pullout from the African market in January, when the streaming giant announced it was shifting course to focus on “emerging” markets in Europe, a continent that was gearing up for the windfalls of blockbuster deals with deep-pocketed platforms also finds itself at the mercy of those companies’ sometimes fickle streaming strategies. “It feels much more like a studio system,...

The sixth edition of the Joburg Film Festival wraps Sunday, putting a bow on a week that saw many in the host nation reflecting on South Africa’s long journey in the three decades since the end of apartheid. But among the filmmakers and executives taking part in the second Jbx content market the focus was squarely on the future, as Africa’s streaming wars and an eye toward global dealmaking highlighted how the tide has begun to shift in how the world perceives the continent. “What a time to be alive in Johannesburg,” said festival founder Timothy Mangwedi at Saturday’s award ceremony. “What a time to be alive in Africa.”

Here are five takeaways from a busy week in Johannesburg:

Streamers shift strategies but still drive growth

Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pull-out from the African market in January has left many local producers frustrated and confused. “It...

This was the year Nollywood made Netflix history.

The Black Book, a revenge thriller from first-time director Editi Effiong became the first-ever Nigerian film to soar to No. 3 on Netflix’s worldwide film charts. The film, made for “just” $1 million (actually a huge sum for a Nigerian movie), garnered 5.6 million views just 48 hours after its Sept. 22 bow on the platform and was watched by more than 20 million people in its opening weeks, breaking Netflix’s Top 10 list in more than 69 countries.

The film stars Nigerian film legend Richard Mofe-Damijo as Paul Edima, a deacon whose dark past returns after his son (Olumide Oworu) is framed for kidnapping by a corrupt police gang and Edima swears revenge.

While critics have dubbed The Black Book Nigeria’s answer to John Wick, the film combines action and its revenge storyline with a primer on Nigerian history, tracing the past 40 years from life under...

Post-pandemic audiences are much more open to different cultures, thanks to streaming and exposure to new types of content, but some of the world’s biggest film industries are still figuring out how to adapt in a rapidly changing landscape, said speakers on the ‘Cinematic Crossovers’ panel in Red Sea Souk.

Leading producers from three industries with an international footprint – Woo-sik Seo from Korea’s Barunson C&c, a subsidiary of Barunson E&a (Parasite), Dheer Momaya from India’s Jugaad Motion Pictures (Last Film Show) and Jadesola Osiberu, founder of Nigeria’s Greoh Studios (Gangs Of Lagos) – compared their business and funding models with the old world system set up by France’s Cnc and the nascent film industry in Saudi Arabia.

But they concluded by saying that, despite their success in achieving global impact, the current systems face some challenges – particularly in terms of censorship and IP ownership.

Korean reality check

Seo,...

The crime thriller genre is known for its clever writing and twists that keep audiences on the edge of their seats. There are many other movies in the crime thriller genre that are similar to Netflix's Reptile, with compelling stories and talented actors. Some crime thrillers similar to Reptile include The Black Book, The Guilty, Fractured, The Highwaymen, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile, and Zodiac.

While Netflix's Reptile is one of the top movies trending in the crime thriller genre, there are plenty of other films with similar themes and subject matter that are just as good. Known for its ability to keep viewers on the edges of their seats, films in the crime thriller genre often employ clever writing, nauseating twists and turns, and other reliable tactics intrinsic to the genre to deliver tons of heart-stopping drama. With Reptile's star-studded cast including Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake,...

Exclusive: Ugandan actress Tracy Kababiito, British-Nigerian actor Wale Ojo and Rwandan actress Isabelle Kabano are set to co-star in groundbreaking, pan-African Rwanda genocide drama Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story.

The production is being billed as the first major feature about the tragic events in Rwanda in 1994 to be told exclusively about and by Africans.

Between 500,000 to 800,000 people belonging to the Tutsi minority ethnic group as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa were killed by armed Hutu militias over the course of 100 days between April 7 and July 15, 1994.

Nigerian director Ema Edosio-Deelen will direct from a script which she is co-writing with award-winning Rwandan director and screenwriter Joël Karekezi.

Bisesero: A Daughter’s Story will recount the little-known true story of the Bisesero Resistance, in which tens of thousands of Tutsi led by an elder called Aminadabu Birara (played by Ojo), bravely fought off Hutu attackers.

Kababiito will play Birara’s...

Whether you’re in the mood to weave through busy city streets at top speed, break the bones of every henchman in the warehouse, or exact revenge on the big boss that killed your dog, Netflix has countless training videos … I mean action flicks … for you to enjoy. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to discover which among them is the right one for you. Thankfully, we’re here to help and have assembled a rotating list of Good Action Movies on Netflix.

Note: The following titles are streaming on the U.S. version of Netflix.

Aka (2023)

Who’s in the mood for car chases, deception, and realistic confrontations? Aka could be the cure for what ails you. Morgan S. Dalibert’s Aka is a French action film starring Alban Lenoir as Adam Franco, a special ops agent who infiltrates a crime syndicate and winds up getting in way over his head.

Efforts to diversify the global television industry have fallen short, argued Nigerian-British Media Mogul Mo Abudu, CEO of EbonyLife Media, in a keynote on diversity and inclusion at global film and television industry at the MIPCOM Cannes on Tuesday.

Despite much-ballyhooed D&i attempts by studios and streamers, Abudu said she still sees a startling lack of real diversity on international TV screens.

“I continue to see very little on television that reflects me as a woman of color,” she said, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter‘s co-editor-in-chief Nekesa Mumbi Moody. “You think over the years there would be a change coming, with every company having a diversity and inclusion department officer. But one wonders why, because the representation just isn’t there. There just needs to be a lot more work done.”

Abudu, who this year topped The Hollywood Reporter‘s annual list of the Most Powerful Women in Global Entertainment,...

The writers and actors strikes in Hollywood, and the related issues of AI and the disruption of business models brought on by global streaming platforms, have dominated industry discussions this year, overshadowing debates over gender equity, diversity and inclusion. But the progress in those areas continues, noted by groups like the 50:50 Equality Project, a BBC initiative to boost onscreen representation that was started in 2017 and now counts some 150 partner organizations in nearly 30 countries. In its latest impact report, published Aug. 18, the Equality Project showed that nearly half (47 percent) of all participating organizations had hit the target of 50 percent female contributors, and more than three quarters (77 percent) featured at least 40 percent female contributions.

Worldwide progress at the executive level has been slower, but as The Hollywood Reporter’s list of the most powerful women in international television illustrates, female executives are established in the C-suites of many of the world’s most influential media companies.

David Beckham scored a goal with his latest Netflix docuseries.

Beckham took the top spot among the streamer’s English-language series in its debut week, securing 12.4M views.

That means that Sex Education Season 4 was knocked down a peg, but it still managed to hold onto No. 2 with 6.6M views — which is quite a drop from the 13.4M views it secured the week prior. It must have been a slow week for streaming though, because that was nearly twice the amount of views as Love Is Blind Season 5, which came in at No. 3 with 3.7M.

One Piece remains on the list for its sixth week in a row at No. 4, this time taking home an additional 2.5M views. Season 5 of Virgin River logged its fifth week on the list, taking sixth place with 2M views.

The rest of the list included several docuseries — Encounters at #5 (2M views), Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal...

Class is still in session at Netflix as the fourth and final season of Sex Education remained at the top of its TV ratings charts.

The teen series scored 13.4M views in its second week, up from the 12M views that it secured last week. The move also helped the first season sneak into the top ten with 1.9M views. Elsewhere, on the TV charts, British true crime doc Who Killed Jill Dando? claimed second place in its debut week with 5.5M views, Love Is Blind was in third spot, the second season of Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal was in fourth place, alien docuseries Encounters discovered 4.4M views in fifth place, followed by One Piece, which got 3.8M views to take it to 57.8M views to date, season five of Virgin River, the video game adaptation Castlevania: Nocturne, which got 2.6M views and HBO series The Pacific in tenth spot.

A world-weary ex-hitman is forced to venture back to the criminal underworld he abandoned, all in the name of avenging the death of someone dear. No, this is not the plot of  "John Wick," but the Nigerian crime thriller "The Black Book," which is currently topping Netflix charts worldwide, thanks to a gritty, engaging plot with sincere emotional stakes. Editi Effiong's "The Black Book" was four years in the making and worked with a budget of $1 million, and the crime-thriller defied expectations by quickly claiming a spot among the Top 10 list since its release on Netflix last week.

So, what makes "The Black Book" so special compared to contemporary crime-thrillers that are tinted with similar themes of shady criminal underworlds and personal revenge? For one, the film fleshes out a visceral picture of crime and corruption, where forces of the law blatantly kill a man in broad daylight without repercussions or remorse.

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The fourth and final season of “Sex Education” has toppled “One Piece’s” reign atop Netflix’s global top 10 list of the most-watched TV series of the week.

“One Piece” held onto the coveted position for three weeks in a row. But on Tuesday, the streamer revealed it had been topped by the final season of the comedy “Sex Education,” which brought in 12 million views. It was then followed not by “One Piece” but by Season 2 of the true crime docuseries “Murdaugh Murders: A Southern Scandal,” which debuted in its first week with 7.6 million views. Season 1 of the series also re-entered the weekly list, bringing in 2.4 million views.

After “Sex Education” and “Murdaugh Murders,” “One Piece” took the No. 3 spot with 6.2 million views followed by Season 5 of “Virgin River” in...

With writers off the picket lines, they might consider news pitches to address what’s clearly an underfed genre: Movie star as comedienne, and we’re not talking rom-coms.

Cases in point: Well, there’s the Margot Robbie juggernaut that is “Barbie” (Warner Bros.), with its $630 million domestic/over $1.4 billion worldwide theatrical take to date. Perhaps even more relevant is “No Hard Feelings” (Sony), a totally original project that didn’t have the benefit of an iconic Mattel doll as its core IP.

As expected, “Barbie” repeated as #1 on all charts. However, “Feelings” — starring and produced by Jennifer Lawrence as an Uber driver hired to elevate the confidence of a shy 19-year-old entering college — has remained on or near #1 since it hit home viewing in early August.

“Feelings” grossed $50 million in domestic theaters and another $36 million foreign, which isn’t great when it cost $45 million before marketing.

However, its home performance — initially as a $19.99 PVOD,...

Netflix’s latest movie from Nigeria is titled The Black Book, and it stars Richard Mofe-Damijo, Ade Laoye, and Sam Dede, among others. When a simple pastor’s son is killed by corrupt cops, the sermon-delivering kind man must seek justice his way after the usual ways of police and the law fail. Offering a view into the corruption and heinous mentality of the ones in power in Nigeria, the movie features sufficient action sequences to keep the audience entertained. Here’s a detailed review of Editi Effiong’s The Black Book.

What Happens In The Movie?

In the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria, a van is caught in traffic, and the crying baby inside is being shushed by the nanny. Suddenly, multiple armed thugs surround the vehicle and threaten to set the car on fire until the man comes outside. The thugs nab the man, as well as the baby,...

September and school have begun, so settle in for some new additions to Netflix this month that will provide comfort amid summertime blues. Those in the mood for love might enjoy the adaptation of Jennifer E. Smith’s book, “Love at First Sight” starring Ben Hardy and Haley Lu Richardson, or the arrival of Sony’s “Love Again” starring Priyanka Chopra and Sam Heughan. Those not aiming for straight rom-com, but a mix of humor and heart will look forward to the fourth and final season of “Sex Education” and the shenanigans of Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), Eric Effiong (Ncuti Gatwa), Maeve Wiley (Emma Mackey) and more.

More serious cinema lovers can look forward to Viola Davis’ Oscar-winning performance in “Fences” (2016) arriving Sept. 1. Eminem’s biographic film “8 Mile” will also arrive that day. Reality lovers can watch Season 4 of “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” before the new Season...

Netflix have offered up a detailed update of all the shows and movies that are planned for the service this September, and we’re here to fill you in on everything you can expect to be added in the coming month!

The Matt Groening-created animated comedy series Disenchantment will return with its final run of ten episodes at the start of the month, and Netflix is adding a long list of library movies to release alongside it, including Jaws 1-3, Superbad, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Later in the month, we’ll also be treated to a fourth season of Sex Education and a fifth season of Love is Blind. For all you nostalgic Spy Kids fans out there, a brand-new movie in the franchise is heading to Netflix in September called Spy Kids: Armageddon, helmed by original director Robert Rodriguez!

Here’s everything else coming to Netflix this month.