BBC Studios Drama Productions, a unit of British public broadcaster BBC’s commercial arm, has struck a development partnership with Nigerian TV pioneer Mosunmola “Mo” Abudu, founder and CEO of EbonyLife Media.
The deal, brokered by CAA, will see BBC Studios Drama Productions develop six-part action-adventure series Reclaim with EbonyLife. Written by BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Rowan Athale (The Rise, Strange But True, Little America), the heist thriller is based on an original idea by Abudu, Heidi Uys and Bode Asiyanbi.
It follows “the story of a team of art thieves looking to return artworks stolen by the British Empire 125 years ago from the Kingdom of Benin back to its rightful home in Nigeria,” according to a plot description. “On his death bed, billionaire art collector, Chief Inneh, hands his life’s mission over to his daughter Idia Nicole Inneh: she must reclaim four looted ivory masks depicting Queen Idia, the first Queen Mother of the 16th century Benin Empire. The exquisite masks are on display in museums in Britain, Germany and the United States and have to be returned to Nigeria to restore national pride. A woman of action with nothing to lose, Idia assembles a kick-ass team of talented but morally dubious individuals from around the globe, including world-class art thief Matthew Jones, art expert Xena Kanene, yahoo-boy (meaning email scammer) Hector Mawusi and logistics genius Lindiwe Radebe.”
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Priscilla Parish, head of drama, BBC Studios, lauded Abudu for having “an extraordinary track record in bringing previously unheard stories to a wide audience,” adding: “Reclaim’s breathtaking action-adventure is underpinned by thoughtful and timely themes and declares our shared intention to create stories which have both local and international resonance.”
Said Abudu: “Reclaim is our first big-budget, global series, set partly in the U.K. It is a dream come true for two reasons – first, it is a partnership with BBC Studios; second, the project will debut under EbonyLife Productions U.K. We set up EbonyLife in London because our global strategy includes expansion to the U.K. and the United States. As Nigerians and Africans, we should see ourselves as world citizens and our storytelling, locations and networks should extend to every corner of the globe.”
