Chimamanda Adichie’s Acclaimed Novel ‘Americanah’ Turned Into Film Coming Soon

Chimamanda Adichie’s acclaimed novel, ‘Americanah’ is being adapted into a film which is coming soon.

This good news was shared by Lupita Nyong’o during a recent Vogue magazine interview published on March 18, 2019.

According to the ‘Black Panther’ actress, Adichie’s novel is one of the exciting projects she has lined up for this year.

In her words, “My dream project is finally getting to make Americanah [a 2013 novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie], which is looking very, very likely.”

“It’s going to happen in the near future and it’s been a long time in the making and I’m very, very ripe and ready to get into that for sure,” she added.

The novel tells a story of a Nigerian woman named Ifemelu, who travels to the United States to further her education. It also revolves around her relationship with her secondary school classmate, Obinze, race relations, self-identity and black identity in diaspora communities.

It won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Fiction award in 2013. ‘Americanah’ also won the New York book contest in 2017 and made it to the former U.S. president Barack Obama’s list of his favourite books for 2018.

The Kenya actress bought the film rights to ‘Americanah’ back in 2014. Since then, she has been working on the screenplay with fellow Black Panther’s cast mate, Danai Gurira.

Nyong’o explained why it was so important for her get the movie rights to this novel in an interview with an international magazine called AnOther.

She said, “In fact, just before 12 Years came out, I pre-ordered that book and I could not put it down. To see an African woman whose identity was in a flux in the way that Ifemelu’s is in the book just spoke so deeply to me. I could not stop thinking about it so I immediately contacted her.

“I had no stars or stripes to my name except, ‘I’m an actress from Kenya and I read your book and I love it and I’m going to be in this movie called 12 Years a Slave.’ I had no idea what that meant anyway, but I knew I wanted to make this.”

Yes!!! 'Tis true: I acquired the rights to make a film of this amazing book by this amazing writer. I HIGHLY recommend the read. #Americanah #GrabIt

The Oscar-winning actress also shared more details revealing that the novel is being turned into a mini-series not a feature film.

“It’s very hard to reduce just to a movie,” she explained. “We discovered that, while we were trying to adapt it, we needed more time. It’s been a long journey with Americanah, but I feel like projects come to be in their own time, in their right time. We’re very near, we’re so close to a production date and that’s really exciting.”

Last year, the two Black Panther cast mates visited Lagos state, Nigeria to do some research. It's been reported that series will be shot here. 

There were early reports that Nyong’o’s ‘Queen of Katwe’ co-star David Oyelowo would play the male lead but there’s no word on whether he is still attached to the project.