Idris Elba's ambitious plans for Africa’s entertainment industry revealed

Idris Elba has recently planned to expand Africa’s entertainment industry by establishing a cinema chain across the continent.

“I’d love to build the African Odeon,” said the 52-year-old while speaking on a panel discussion at SXSW London.

Elba noted that the African continent has fewer than 3,000 cinemas but he believed the “cinema experience that we all have gone through should be experienced by a new generation”.

Interestingly, the Luther actor pointed out that his vision extended beyond just building theaters.

Elba wanted to create a “comprehensive ecosystem that supports African creators from production through distribution, leveraging data to prove market viability to global partners,” via Variety.

Being a dyslexic, the Thor actor also reflected on Talking Scripts, an AI-powered app, he developed with director Stefan Schwartz to address challenges faced by dyslexic professionals in the movie industry.

It is pertinent to mention that Elba signified the importance of helping young creators recognise their imaginative potential as economic value.

“Trying to get young people to understand that their capital, their wealth, their fortune, is within themselves, within that creative tool set,” remarked the Extraction 2 actor.

Elba further said, “Young people don’t realize how expansive their imaginations are, how valuable their imaginations are when they share ideas and create stuff.”

Meanwhile, the actor added that artificial intelligence will be a transformative force for African cinema.

“I’ve been saying for two years that artificial intelligence will leapfrog the creative sector,” he said.