Posted by By Umoru Henry on
THE American actor and producer, John Wesley Snipes has arrived Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, amidst funfair, with a pledge to work in collaboration with Nigerian actors in a bid to move Nollywood to greater heights.
ABUJA - THE American actor and producer, John Wesley Snipes has arrived Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, amidst funfair, with a pledge to work in collaboration with Nigerian actors in a bid to move Nollywood to greater heights.
Speaking Thursday at a joint world press briefing held at the Dome, Abuja, Wesley, who disclosed that his first visit to Nigeria was in 1986 to work on one of professor Wole Soyinka's plays, noted that with this close tie between Nigeria and America especially in the area of cross fertilization of culture and ideas, the dream of making Nollywood compete favourably with Hollywood will not be far fetched, adding that if given the opportunity to act in Nigeria, he would prefer to play active role in Hausa, Ibo or Yoruba films.
In his address, the United States of America Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, who acknowledged the contributions of Sunny Ade, Soyinka and Achebe in promoting the cultural heritage of Nigeria in far away United States of America, said the coming of the American actor to Nigeria underscores the strong cultural ties that exists between Nigeria and the United States of America.
According to him, Wesley Snipes while in Nigeria for his four-day visit to Nigeria, many Nigerians both old and young as well as actors would tap from his experience and ideas, adding that the visit would go along way in boosting tourism potentials of Nigeria.
John Wesley Snipes, who arrived Abuja Thursday for a four -day working visit to some selected areas in Nigeria, was born July31,1962 in Orlando, Florida. He is probably best known for his role as the eponymous vampire hunter in the Blade trilogy of movies.
He has to his credit some selected Filmography such as Wildcats [1986], Major League [1989], King of New York [1990], New Jack City [1991] and White Men Can't Jump [1992].
Others are Passenger 57 [1992], Demolition Man [1993], Drop Zone [1994], to Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie New mar [1995], The Fan [1996], Murder at 1600 [1997], blade [1998], The art of War [2000], Blade11[2002] and Blade; Trinity [2004].