Oscar-tipped Briton David Oyelowo is looking to follow up his acclaimed turn as Martin Luther King Jr in civil-rights drama Selma with a role opposite Lupita Nyong’o in the Nigerian diaspora tale Americanah, reports Variety.
Oyelowo, who last week picked up a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a drama for his work on Ava DuVernay’s film, would take the male lead.
Americanah, based on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s prize-winning novel, centres on two young Nigerians, Ifemelu and Obinze, who are separated after falling in love. Determined to leave a nation riven by military dictatorship, Ifemelu secures a place at an American university shortly after 9/11. Obinze is unable to secure a visa and instead suffers as an undocumented immigrant in London.
Oyelowo is tipped to score his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of MLK in Selma, DuVernay’s film about the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. He has also secured Critics’ Choice and Independent Spirit nominations for the role.
Nyong’o, the Mexican-Kenyan actor who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her turn in 12 Years a Slave in March, was reported to be considering the female lead in June. She would reunite with the producer who helped make her a star, Brad Pitt, the latter having signed on via his Plan B banner. Pitt’s production unit also helped bring Selma to the big screen.
Adichie’s book won the 2013 US National Book Critics Circle award for fiction and was named one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review, the BBC and Newsday. She is the 37-year-old author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, which has also recently been made into a film.
No writer or director has been secured for Americanah, and the film has no start date as yet.
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- Lupita Nyong’o reunites with Brad Pitt for Americanah
