KENYAN star actress and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o has optioned and got the film rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s latest novel, Americanah.
In an interview with Arise Entertainment two months ago, the Nigerian author hinted that she will be working with Lupita. She said that Lupita read the novel, loved it and “will be making an announcement soon”. However, that announcement was officially made by Adichie at Stylist magazine’s Stylist Book Club on Thursday in the UK.
A few minutes after the interview, the Stylist Magazine tweeted: “Lupita Nyong’o has optioned rights for the film version of Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie confirms.”
Adichie said: “Lupita was a very early fan of Americanah. And so before she was sort of well-known in the way that she is now, she wrote me…the loveliest email, a very long and passionate email about Americanah.”
Americanah is a love story that centers on a young man and woman from Nigeria who face difficult choices and challenges in the countries they come to call home. The book was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review and it won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Fiction). It’s Adichie’s second book to be adapted for the silver screen, after Half of a Yellow Sun.
It’s assumed that Lupita will play the book’s protagonist, Ifemelu, but that is to be confirmed yet. However, she begins the uphill climb as she works towards packaging the project, making it fund-attractive enough for the potential financiers.
– article written by Elly Gitau – article adapted from The Star Kenya
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