Here's your first official look (above, courtesy of our friends at Arise magazine) at the much-dabated (on S&A anyway) film adaptation of celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Orange Prize-winning novel, Half Of A Yellow Sun.
Principal photography is complete on the project which was shot in both Nigeria and London, with a cast that includes Thandie Newton, John Boyega, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dominic Cooper, Anika Noni Rose, Joseph Mawle and Genevieve Nnaji.
This is playwright Biyi Bandele's feature film directorial debut.
Described as an epic love story, here's the official synopsis released by the film's producers which tells us what role each starring actor will play:
… weaving together the lives of four people swept up in the turbulence of war. Olanna (Newton) and Kainene (Rose) are glamorous twins from a wealthy Nigerian family. Returning to a privileged city life in newly independent 1960s Nigeria after their expensive English education, the two women make very different choices. Olanna shocks her family by going to live with her lover, the “revolutionary professor” Odenigbo (Ejiofor) and his devoted houseboy Ugwu (Boyega) in the dusty university town of Nsukka; Kainene turns out to be a fiercely successful businesswoman when she takes over the family interests, and surprises herself when she falls in love with Richard (Mawle) an English writer. Preoccupied by their romantic entanglements, and a betrayal between the sisters, the events of their life loom larger than politics. However, they become caught up in the events of the Nigerian civil war, in which the lgbo people fought an impassioned struggle to establish Biafra an independent republic, ending in chilling violence which shocked the entire country and the world.
The crew includes award-winning cinematographer John de Borman (An Education, The Full Monty), production designer Andrew McAlpine (BAFTA winner for The Piano), and award-winning Nigerian songwriter Cobhams Asuquo and singer-songwriter Keziah Jones who are composing original music for the film, which will likely be released sometime in 2013
If you missed it, read our Book To Film report on the project HERE.
Looking forward to that first trailer.
Here's the full un-cropped photo.
