Movie Producer Socrate Safo has denied pulling out a gun in Kumasi in a misunderstanding with Twi-speaking actress Mercy Asiedu over the title of his upcoming movie ‘Greedy Bastards’.
The contentious director and producer in a phone conversation with GhanaCelebrities.Com today denied pulling out any gun as reported by NEWS-ONE. Narrating his side of the story, he said in the middle of the shoot of his movie in Kumasi, one of the casts asked to know the title of the movie.
Mind you, most of the movies produced featuring Twi or local actors are not shot with scripts as most of them cannot ‘speak’ and fathom the Queen’s language. Okay, let me put it this way, most of them are comfortable in the local language.
As will be expected, adlibbing becomes the other of the day when working with such group of actors. The most important thing is just brief them on the story line and then shooting begins after agreeing on their fees.
Though, the above does not apply to every Twi or local movie actor, it’s the other of the day. This explains why most of their movies are nothing to write home about with dragged scenes and inappropriate language used in the movies.
Movie makers can commence shooting a movie with a working title sometimes. These titles can be changed or maintained at the discretion of the producer. No actor has any right to argue with a movie producer or director over a title of a movie. This is gross indiscipline on the part of any actor/actress to fight a producer/director over the title of his own movie.
An actor/actress that walks off the set and threatens not to continue shooting can be dragged to court by the producer for redress if there was a contract.
Still on the phone, Socrate answered that, he wants to use ‘Greedy Bastards’ as his title based on the story line. According to him, Mercy Asiedu got angry and requested that, the title be changed since she didn’t want to be invited by the National Security or any radio station for interviews.
Naturally, Ghanaians like talking and complaining but if you know how to deal with them, then, there is no problem at all. It’s an undeniable fact that most movie enthusiasts purchase movies based on the title of the movie. Only a handful can confidently say otherwise.
‘Greedy Bastards’ is one of the terms used by the former president Jerry John Rawlings to describe ministers of his ordained man, President Atta Mills’ government. He has used several terms which movie producers have used as movie titles.
It was glaring at this instances that Socrate Safo, a smart chap with serious business acumen was playing smart to join in the bandwagon of producers who have used some of the terms by the former president to sell their movies. This, was the simple reason why, he wantedto use ‘ Greedy Bastards’ though the story line has nothing to do with politics.
It became very evident that, Mercy Asiedu’s stand was because Kyeiwaa who featured in the movie ‘Atta Mortuary Man’ was constantly called by radio stations for interviews after the movie was confiscated by the government citing political connotations in the movie, though the Censorship Board had Okayed the movie to be released on the market for consumption.
Another movie that was seized with the same reason was ‘Oh Uncle Atta’.
Mercy Asiedu was quoted in NEWS-ONE as saying “…If you really want to continue to work with me, then you must be ready to learn to respect, adjust and listen to other people’s opinion. I don’t want any national security people and radio chasing me for interviews over a movie.”
According to the story, Socrate refused to listen to the actress and asked her to “shut up and stop behaving like a movie producer rather than an actress” and that, he had paid her for her role in the ‘Greedy Bastards’ movie, so she had no option but to play her role, regardless of the movie’s title.
This scuffle continued until Mercy Asiedu left the set. Socrate was then said to have pulled out a gun and pointed it at a guy on set and start shouting. But Socrate was surprised when GhanaCelebrities.Com asked if indeed he pulled out a gun.
“No, I didn’t pull a gun. I can’t pull a gun.” Socrate denied.
Explaining further, he said it was a fake pistol used in the movie and he was demonstrating to them how to use the gun. He however said, he threw the gun at some of them who were still laughing after he had shouted ‘quiet on set’ to roll the camera.
“It was a fake pistol we are about to use in that scene. I was demonstrating to them how to use the gun. So when she [Mercy Asiedu] was leaving the set, she was speaking her normal ‘English’ and they started shouting and laughing.”
“So I came outside to tell them to stop laughing because we are rolling the camera but they continued, so I got angry and threw the gun at them. But it wasn’t a real gun.” He ended.
According to him, even after throwing the gun at them, they continued to laugh at Mercy’s hilarious ‘English’. He said even, throwing the gun wasn’t deliberate as he was angry and he just threw his hand and the pistol got off.
He said he is at the editing bench editing the movie and that he will still release the movie without the scenes Mercy refused to shoot.
‘Greedy Bastards’ tells a story of a rich man who is battling with cancer. He has only 6 months to live. This means, he has to find people to bequeath his properties to.
He decided to bestow the properties to these three people; his gateman, cook and driver. These three people are labelled as the ‘Greedy Bastards’. It became difficult for him to decide which of his three workers to inherit his properties.
The movie featured Kyeiwaa, Mercy Aseidu, Kwaku Manu, Apostle Prah, Azorzor among others. Socrate Safo said, he has not received any calls from any security agencies asking about the said gun.
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