As you’d probably expect for a film like this, international sales have been brisk, as the sales company representing the film, Metro International Entertainment, reports that it has sold UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand rights to Biyi Bandele’s Half Of A Yellow Sun – a film adaptation of celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Orange Prize-winning novel of the same name.
Metro says that it is currently fielding “multiple offers” from USA distributors, so a Stateside pickup could be imminent. I’m actually very curious to learn what USA distributors are chasing the film, and how it will be marketed – likely on the strength of the buzz around Chiwetel Ejiofor, post 12 Years A Slave.
The long-awaited, much-anticipated film adaptation, Bandele’s feature film directorial debut, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, John Boyega, Anika Noni Rose, Joseph Mawle and Genevieve Nnaji, in a drama that weaves together the lives of four people swept up in the turbulence of civil war, with a newly independent 1960s Nigeria as the backdrop.
Produced by Bafta award-winner Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland) and Gail Ega (The Constant Gardner), the film is a British/Nigerian co-production and was shot at Tinapa Film Studio in Nigeria and in the UK.
