Charles Okpaleke’s Remake of ‘Diamond Ring’

By Ferdinand Ekechukwu

One of the few well-crafted and produced Nollywood classic movies of the 90s, “Diamond Ring”, will be in cinemas soon as remake. This disclosure has elicited nostalgia since it was first announced a couple of days ago by Play Network Studios, the stable from which groundbreaking sequels like “Living In Bondage: Breaking Free,” “Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story”, and “Nneka The Pretty Serpent”, was produced. Announcing the latest acquisition, which excites him the most, Charles Okpaleke, the CEO of Play Network revealed that unlike the studios’ long list of classic sequels, this production might wrap up the “Play Network Nostalgic collection”.

“Play Network studios has just acquired the intellectual property rights to this Nollywood classic ‘Diamond Ring’. This would be a Remake and not a Sequel”, Okpaleke posted on Instagram. “This might probably be the last movie under the ‘Play Network Nostalgic collection’. Coming soon to your screens!!”

The entrepreneur in another post went down memory lane with a scene from the old Diamond Ring captioned: “One of my most exciting acquisitions… what a performance!!! A remake coming to your screens soon!!” One would love to see Okpaleke remake “Dangerous Twins”, another Nollywood classic before he wraps up his remakes and sequel expedition with Ramsey Nouah sitting on the directorial seat of these productions.

Following Play Network’s well-received ‘Living in Bondage’ sequel in 2019, the production company acquired rights to a number of other Nollywood classics, including the forthcoming Glamour Girls and Osuofia In Miami. Interestingly, the latest, Diamond Ring, a 1998 Nollywood thriller directed by Tade Ogidan, stars Richard Mofe Damijo, Liz Benson, Tunji Bamishigbin, Teju BabyFace, Sola Sobowale, Bukky Ajayi and Bimbo Akintola. It was made in 2 parts. Movie buffs and fans of Play Network have expressed pleasure to the announcement and crave the likes of Rchard Mofe-Damijo, Sola Sobowale, and Bimbo Akintola reprise their roles in the movie.

The movie “Diamond Ring” follows the story of conflict between the spirit of Mrs. Gladys (Liz Benson) and members of Chidi’s university cult group, XG. In a bid to display fitness for a life in the secret cult, Chidi (Teju ‘BabyFace’), a freshman and the only child of his parents; Chief and Mrs. Ijeoma Dike (played by RMD and Sola Sobowale) steals valuables from Mrs. Gladys’ corpse, including the eponymous diamond ring. Chidi naively sold the ring, purchased a car for his girlfriend Bimbo (Bimbo Akintola) who suspected that he’s joined a cult and asks him about it but he denies. Not long after, the spirit of Mrs. Gladys haunts Chidi and his gang. Chidi is struck by a peculiar sickness which could not be treated by orthodox medicine. The members of the cult begin to die successively. The long and arduous task to finding his healing culminates in the return of the ‘Diamond Ring’ to Mrs. Gladys’ corpse.