Nukie

Nukie (1987)

A Magical Space Adventure

A space child, lost in the universe, is abducted by the U. S. Space Foundation. In a desperate intergalactic search for the frightened little alien, his brother Nukie® mistakenly lands in Africa where he is befriended by African twins. Together they journey through the laughter and adventure of talking lions, a greedy witch doctor, a charming chimpanzee, a feisty nun, a compassionate scientist and an outrageous romantic computer named E.D.D.I.

Date of release
1987-07-01
TMDB
2.2 / 10 (31)
Runtime
1h 39m
Genres
Family, Science Fiction, Adventure
Director
Michael Pakleppa, Sias Odendal

Casting

Interesting facts

Nukie is a 1987 South African science fiction film directed by Sias Odendaal and Michael Pakleppa, and based on an original story by Odendaal, who also wrote the screenplay with Ben Taylor. The film stars Anthony Morrison, Steve Railsback, Ronald France, and Glynis Johns. The plot concerns an alien, Nukie, who crash lands on Earth and seeks help from two children to reunite with his brother, Miko, who has been captured by the US government.

Production

Michael Pakleppa, a distributor of films in Germany, optioned Nukie long before it was shot and without reading the script; he was impressed by the poster, which gave the impression of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial but in an African setting. Upon seeing the film, Pakleppa expressed surprise at the final product and commented on the viewing experience:

We thought we'd all die. There was no South Africa. There were hardly any extraterrestrials. We basically just saw discussions between a nun and a helicopter pilot, who were going on and on about how stupid Black people are, or something. Imagine that again and again and again, at extreme length, and nothing else.

After discussing the film with executive producer Gregory Cascante, the two attempted to create a new edit intended to remove material they considered racist; however, the effort resulted in only about 40 minutes of usable footage. Pakleppa subsequently made several trips to South Africa with a small crew and collaborated with the film’s writer and director, Sias Odendaal, in an attempt to salvage the project.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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