Media Mogul talks "Fifty," adapting foreign films, telling the story of an African woman

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January 8, 2016 1:55 PM

Mo' Abudu

MO Abudu executive produced the much talked about box office hit

In an exclusive interview with Pulse Nigeria, Abudu spoke on inspiration behind movie, challenges encountered, telling the story of an African woman, among other interesting topics.

Read excerpts;

On Inspiration behind “Fifty”

“I woke up nearly a couple of years ago, and found I was turning 5O myself, so I was really inspired to look at - ‘what could be the various scenarios that the woman of fifty could be passing through, what could the challenges be, how would she resolve them?’ So I just started dreaming up all sorts of different ideas that woman of fifty could be passing through.

On why the story of an African woman should be told;

“Because she’s not seen. Even on Google, do the exercise, google the African woman, see what comes up. It doesn’t represent you, it doesn’t represent me, or my mother. So it’s important for us to show that ordinary people like you and I have the same aspirations that women all over the world have.

On challenges encountered on set;

Casting was major for us, in terms of ‘who are gonna play these roles.’ The locations, there are so many locations in ‘Fifty,’ where are we gonna find all these locations to shoot this film. The crew, the team that was gonna ensure excellence ‘where are we gonna find them.”

These were the all the questions in the boxes that we had to take to make it work.

On adapting foreign films

Because these are stories that we are so familiar with. And I think that it’s interesting to take those stories that has been so well written in the Western world, and put in an African spin on it. We did that with Desperate Housewives, and as American as ‘Desperate Housewives’ was, we made it our own, and you could watch it, and you could relate to it.

The media mogul also spoke on her favourite scene, what viewers are going to like, on Nigerians being ready for “Fifty,” and more.

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Executive produced by MO Abudu, directed by Biyi Bandele, "Fifty" is produced by Tope Oshin Ogun, with Malcom McLean as director of photography.

Watch full interview below;

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