Lupita to star in, produce African love story

Reel love for Lupita Nyong’o.

Who said Lupita Nyong’o would struggle in Hollywood after winning an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave? Just days after being cast in Star Wars: Episode VII, Nyong’o has signed on to star in and produce an adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah, it was announced on Thursday.

Nyong’o, along with D2 Productions, Brad Pitt’s company Plan B and Potboiler Productions, has secured the rights to develop the book into a feature film. Americanah is the epic love story of Ifemelu and Obinze, young Nigerians whose romance spans continents, visas, phone cards and break-ups. The film explores the cruelties and the humour of both the modern immigrant experience and the difficulty of finding your way home.

The acclaimed novel was the winner of the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was selected as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, the BBC, and Newsday.

“It is such an honour to have the opportunity to bring Ms. Adichie’s brilliant book to the screen. Page after page I was struck by Ifemelu and Obinze’s stories, whose experiences as African immigrants are so specific and also so imminently relatable. It is a thrilling challenge to tell a truly international story so full of love, humour and heart,” said Nyong’o.