Oyelowo, Smith to produce Netflix film


By Content Nigeria reporter
February 25, 2022

News

British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo and American star Will Smith are producing a Netflix film based on British-Nigerian author Tọlá Okogwu’s novel Onyeka & the Academy of the Sun.

The superhero story, described as Black Panther meets Percy Jackson, will be adapted by Oyelowo (Les Misérables) and Smith (King Richard)’s respective production companies Yoruba Saxon and Westbrook Studios.

It’s about a British-Nigerian girl who learns that her hair has psychokinetic powers. Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where children with superpowers are trained. Onyeka and her new friends at the academy must soon put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies.

The film adaptation will be written by Ola Shokunbi and executive produced by Okogwu, Westbrook Studios’ Heather Washington and Yoruba Saxon’s Jessica Oyelowo.

Okogwu said on Instagram: “From the moment I finished writing Onyeka & the Academy of the Sun, I knew it would make an epic film. So it is with great joy I get to say that it is being adapted for film by Netflix.”

The debut date on Netflix is yet to be announced.

Smith launched Westbrook Studios in 2019, while Oyelowo co-founded Yoruba Saxon in 2014.

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