LOGLINE:
In order to free himself of a tortured African past, a smooth-talking con man is forced to crush his city’s transformational hopes of hosting The World Cup.
THE BLACK MARIA smashes the gritty, con-within-a-con, of LAYER CAKE together with the wisecracking, adventure of THE HANGOVER trilogy, creating an action caper that steals the audiences’ attention the world over.
SYNOPSIS:
After a heist runs afoul, smooth talking con man, LESLEY, finds himself imprisoned in his unwanted homeland of Lagos, Nigeria. His only way out — strike a deal with TOBI the kingpin of the city who also happens to be Deputy Governor.
As of late, crime in Lagos has taken a hard hit. The newly elected GOVERNOR has been chipping away at Tobi’s criminal empire to attract the attention of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) in hopes that Lagos plays host to the World Cup!
Tobi will allow Lesley to leave Nigeria alive and free his now-held-hostage partner, GERARD, on one condition: Lesley uses his talents to scour Africa for a team of criminals to lay the city of Lagos and its dreams of FIFA to waste.
As a bonus, the Governor’s World Cup retainer of eighty million is Lesley’s if he can free it from a six ton, fortified, urban assault vehicle… The Black Maria.
Lesley unwillingly teams up with WALLY, an accident prone (and noticeably Caucasian) Nigerian native with a gift for speaking virtually any African language and EMBEREY (Tobi’s sultry attaché) who is forced into the mix to keep her eyes on the two.
The recruitment drive leads the trio to the far corners of the continent, discovering infamous characters at every turn: a pair of aquatic twins — a hacker and his hyena — pyrotechnically obsessed pirates — a boy king and his underlings — and Lesley’s old mentor, THE CHAMELEON, all answer the call for chaos.
Lesley’s own secret loss of family years ago to the violence of Lagos’ past comes to light, causing him to reconsider “Chaos Day”. For the first time Lesley has more than just his own life hanging in the balance as he must quickly right the wrong that is about to be unleashed upon Lagos.