The success story of Kunle Afolayan’s Netflix movie Anikulapo keeps getting bigger. The movie topped the charts of non-English films in its first week of release according to Netflix ranking and now it is getting commissioned to be produced as a series.
According to Afolayan, Netflix, a global streaming platform, wants him to produce a series from Anikulapo.
The award winning filmmaker, made this known in an interview with Guardian IK on Saturday, adding that he was sure ‘Anikulapo’ which he had been working on for six years would become a blockbuster.
‘Anikulapo’, set in the 17th century ancient Oyo Kingdom, premiered on Netflix on September 30, 2022 and a week after its premiere, became the most-watched non-English film on Netflix, with a cumulative 8.7m streaming hours.
With Anikulapo, Afolayan the filmmaker, cemented his family’s legacy by featuring his 17 year old daughter, Eyiyemi Afolayan in the film. He said his initial plan was to make it into a series but Netflix prevailed on him to make it into a feature film first and expand to a series if the movie sold out.
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The filmmaker said that Anikulapo has been in the works for six years.
“Eventually, Netflix told me to make a movie first since I believed in the project that much, and if it became a success, we’d develop a series,” Afolayan said.
“Right now, Netflix is the one urging me to start making the series. I knew we made a great film and that it’d start conversations, but I didn’t know it’d do as well as it has done.”
The movie was produced in Yoruba language and features A-list actors and actresses such as Kunle Remi, Yinka Quadri, Bimbo Ademoye, Sola Sobowale and others.
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