English actor Idris Elba has announced plans to establish a world-class film studio in Ghana and parts of West Africa.
“We have been working at this for three or four years to raise a plan that puts a facility at the centre of African filmmaking,” Elba told Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Friday (3 February). “There is a lot of filmmaking, but the facility is lacking.”
“In South Africa, they have a large facility and a lot of filmmaking goes there. We realised that policy is where the actual groundwork needs to be laid. We’ve studied the models of South Africa, and incredible incentive packages. Greece, Morocco and these are all places where they realise the value of the filmmaking and they’ve brought that policy into play,” he added.
“National Film Authority has done the work and put together a very comprehensive plan to propel Ghana into the forefront. It needs to be robust and competitive to the rest of the world. We believe for sure that Ghana should step up in terms of attracting those filmmakers. I’ve come and seen you and presented to you essentially, just the parameters of what we need to do,” Elba said.
