There is a Things Fall Apart movie after all,
and it is made in Hollywood. Segun Oyekunle is one of the few people
who saw it, as a film student in the US, and he understood why the late
Chinua Achebe wept over the movie. In this piece, he recounts seeing
Achebe weep over the movie and why the movie has not been released.
I have read almost every encomium on Prof. Chinua Achebe, and I don't think it can ever be enough to add another. In fact, I feel I must add this one because none has mentioned the man's desire to shoot his works in film, which was totally aborted by the debacle that was 'Things Fall Apart' the film, variously called 'Bullfrog in the Sun'.
I also seize this opportunity to link it to the Nigerian film industry and the need for our writers to participate in it. This story started at the University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] African Studies Center. I had had the privilege of watching the film before I met him. The film was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and Ed Mosk, starring John Seka and Princess Elizabeth Toro of Uganda.
So that afternoon we (students) were sitting with the son of Samuel Goldwyn Jr. [of the MGM - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fame] who was a student at the Film School. I told him I had won his father's creative writing award, the Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Award for my screenplay, BROKEN CELLS. The Award Ceremony was held in his father's huge spread in Bel Air. He was quite pleased to hear that an
African had won it for the first time and asked where in Africa I came from.
"Nigeria! Things Fall Apart!"
For a moment I didn't know what to make of it. Was he talking about the Nigerian state or the famous novel?
He soon helped me out. "The film! My father produced it! I can show you!"
"Wow!" I said. I heard it was produced and I had been longing for the opportunity to see it.
After the film, I had never been so sad! Those who saw it were as stunned, totally stunned.
I had read the entire Prof's works up to that time. The film I saw was not the 'Things Fall Apart' that I and all who had read the eponymous book came to see. The film had combined the trilogy - 'Things Fall Apart', 'No Longer At Ease', and 'A Man of the People'- in one fell
I have read almost every encomium on Prof. Chinua Achebe, and I don't think it can ever be enough to add another. In fact, I feel I must add this one because none has mentioned the man's desire to shoot his works in film, which was totally aborted by the debacle that was 'Things Fall Apart' the film, variously called 'Bullfrog in the Sun'.
I also seize this opportunity to link it to the Nigerian film industry and the need for our writers to participate in it. This story started at the University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA] African Studies Center. I had had the privilege of watching the film before I met him. The film was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and Ed Mosk, starring John Seka and Princess Elizabeth Toro of Uganda.
So that afternoon we (students) were sitting with the son of Samuel Goldwyn Jr. [of the MGM - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer fame] who was a student at the Film School. I told him I had won his father's creative writing award, the Samuel Goldwyn Creative Writing Award for my screenplay, BROKEN CELLS. The Award Ceremony was held in his father's huge spread in Bel Air. He was quite pleased to hear that an
African had won it for the first time and asked where in Africa I came from.
"Nigeria! Things Fall Apart!"
For a moment I didn't know what to make of it. Was he talking about the Nigerian state or the famous novel?
He soon helped me out. "The film! My father produced it! I can show you!"
"Wow!" I said. I heard it was produced and I had been longing for the opportunity to see it.
After the film, I had never been so sad! Those who saw it were as stunned, totally stunned.
I had read the entire Prof's works up to that time. The film I saw was not the 'Things Fall Apart' that I and all who had read the eponymous book came to see. The film had combined the trilogy - 'Things Fall Apart', 'No Longer At Ease', and 'A Man of the People'- in one fell
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