ABOUT
Blunt Pencil Storyworks
develops African stories
for global screens.
A writer-director-led development house creating distinctive stories for the screen.
We develop projects from concept to production, rooted in African storytelling and open to audiences and opportunities around the world.
ABOUT OUR FOUNDER
Afe Olumowe
Afe Olumowe is a Nigerian-Canadian writer, filmmaker, and creative producer whose work is rooted in the richness, complexity, and diversity of African narratives. He founded Blunt Pencil Storyworks , a Nigerian production company focused on developing and producing distinctive African stories with the ambition to reach audiences across the continent and internationally.
With its roots and production presence in Nigeria, Blunt Pencil Storyworks works across African creative networks while maintaining an international presence in Canada. This allows Afe and the company to bring together a deep understanding of African storytelling, cultural context, and dramatic traditions with international development, financing, and co-production expertise.
Afe’s approach is rigorous, collaborative, and writer-focused. Through Blunt Pencil Storyworks, he works with emerging and established African writers to develop culturally authentic stories with strong dramatic engines, distinctive characters, and international audience potential, without compromising the voices, settings, and perspectives that make them authentically African.
Blunt Pencil Storyworks is currently developing a slate of original production projects and nurturing writers through its Story Lab, while building development and co-production relationships with African and international production partners. The company’s mission is to develop African stories from strong local foundations into ambitious productions capable of travelling across borders and connecting with audiences globally.
View film credits on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3393999/
WHY BPS EXISTS
Stories are infrastructure. The system just hasn't built it yet.
Blunt Pencil Storyworks was founded because too many good stories die in development hell ; especially stories that come from outside the established system.
Every screenwriter has a drawer full of scripts that never saw a camera. Not because the stories were weak, but because the bridge between “great script” and “greenlight” doesn’t exist for people without a deal at a major studio or a contact in the right room.
Coverage services read scripts and charge for notes. Development executives ask for “more international appeal” , which usually means “less African,” “less specific,” “less authentic.”
None of them build the story into something that can actually get made.
I had directed features that earned AMVCA and Ghana Movie Awards nominations, written pilots with full season arcs, and still found myself explaining to gatekeepers why a medical thriller set in Enugu mattered, why specificity was the point.
The system wasn’t designed for stories like mine. So I stopped waiting for permission to build one that was.
— Afe Olumowe, Founder, Director & Writer
WHAT BPS DOES
We don't give notes. We build stories.
Story & Script Development
From pilot to series bible, from concept to production-ready screenplay. BPS doesn't give notes and send writers home. We build the story until it's ready for cameras.
Studio Slate
A curated pipeline of original projects in script development, seeking co-production, financing, or greenlight. The slate includes completed bibles, full episode arcs, and pitch materials.
Story Lab
An incubator for writers and directors. BPS finds talent others overlook and develops them to industry standard.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
Principles that guide our work.
Stories are infrastructure.
A great script is not art waiting to be discovered ; it’s a blueprint waiting to be built. We develop with production in mind, not prizes.
African cinema is a global genre.
Not a niche. Not a diversity mandate. A commercial, creative, and cultural force that deserves the same development rigor as any studio slate.
Development is a service, not a gate.
We work with external writers and projects because good stories come from everywhere. If we can build it, we will.
Directors should develop.
BPS is founder-led by a filmmaker who has shot features, worked with actors, and sat in edit bays. Our development is grounded in what cameras can capture and what audiences will feel.
THE SLATE
These aren't ideas. They're inventory.
The development slate includes completed bibles, pitch decks, and scripts ready for market:
FEVER
Drama series
8 episodes written, bible complete
PURPLE
Limited series
Full season arc + pilot complete
GOODBYE TOMORROW
Feature film
Screenplay + pitch deck complete
CHELUCHI
Feature film
Treatment + visual bible, early development
THE NAME
Every great film starts with a blunt pencil.
"Blunt Pencil" is the tool you use when you're still sketching, still figuring it out,
still building the blueprint. Every great film starts with a blunt pencil and someone
stubborn enough to keep sharpening it.
We are that someone.
WHERE BPS IS GOING
We are not waiting for the industry to change.
We are building the company that changes it.
Blunt Pencil Storyworks is building a development pipeline: a story lab, a slate of
production-ready series and features, and partnerships with broadcasters,
funders, and producers who understand that the next great drama might come
from anywhere the industry hasn't looked yet.
WORK WITH BPS
Our inventory is ready. Is your vision?
Producers
Looking for production-ready content? Our slate is built for co-production and greenlight.
Streamers
Need original series or features with built-in bibles and episode arcs? Inventory is ready for pitch.
Investors
BPS is an active development house with real inventory, real infrastructure, and a real market gap to fill.