Subscribe

Akwaeke Emezi’s Romance Novel Bought by Outlier Society in 7-Figure Film Deal

Written last year, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is about a Nigerian artist in love and grief. Outlier Society is Michael B. Jordan’s company.
Akwaeke Emezi by Frances F. Denny.

Akwaeke Emezi by Frances F. Denny.

Home
Akwaeke Emezi’s Romance Novel Bought by Outlier Society in 7-Figure Film Deal

The Nigerian writer Akwaeke Emezi’s forthcoming romance novel has been bought by actor Michael B. Jordan’s Amazon-hosted production company Outlier Society, in a seven-figure deal. You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty will be published in 2022 by the Simon & Schuster imprint Atria.

Outlier Society beat eight other offers for the rights. Though Jordan’s new film Without Remorse began airing on Amazon Prime last week, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty is the first major film property acquisition by the Black Panther star. Emezi will be executive producer for the project.

Here’s a synopsis of the novel as shared by Deadline:

The protagonist is a beautiful Nigerian 29-year-old aspiring artist in Brooklyn who loses her husband in a tragic accident.

While she grieves through her art, her life begins to turn around when she meets a handsome new man at a party and is given an introduction to a major curator who wants to launch her career into the art world.

But even as romance takes her to a beautiful estate in the Caribbean, she struggles with the challenge of balancing grief with the desire to move forward with her life.

In a Twitter post, Emezi revealed their romance novel was written last year. “To be made executive producer (again!) on YOU MADE A FOOL OF DEATH WITH YOUR BEAUTY is an utter dream,” they wrote.

A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree, Akwaeke Emezi was born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria. They are the author of the novels Freshwater, PET, and The Death of Vivek Oji. Their forthcoming works includes debut books of nonfiction and poetry: Dear Senthuran (A Black Spirit Memoir), from Riverhead Books (June 2021), and Content Warning: Everything, from Copper Canyon Press (2022).

...

Emmanuel Esomnofu, Staff Writer at Open Country Mag

Emmanuel Esomnofu

Emmanuel Esomnofu was a staff writer at Open Country Mag. He is a culture journalist and has written extensively on Nigerian music and on several moving parts of popular culture. His writing appears online in Native Mag, Okay Africa, Kalahari Review, Praxis Magazine, and elsewhere. He was published in print in The Muse, the oldest student journal in West Africa. In December 2020, he worked on "Fuji: A Opera" as a copywriter, creating informative and exciting stories from Fuji's rich history.

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommendation

Tunde Onakoya at a Chess in Slums exercise.

The Fates and Faith of Tunde Onakoya

In five years, Chess in Slums Africa brought hope to thousands of children and became a charity phenomenon. But to get there, its founder had to survive the terrors of poverty, illness, pain, and shame. “It’s the kind of things that you see in movies, and you’re, like, this is really bad,” he said, “but then you’re seeing it, the actual reality, the real consequences of poverty.”
Otosirieze
DK Nnuro

DK Nnuro Finds His Answers

The Ghanaian American author of What Napoleon Could Not Do, a summer reading pick by Barack Obama, has been thinking about art in our contemporary times.
Adams Adeosun
Yahoo+ still

“It’s the Fact That We Did It Our Own Way”: How Yahoo+ Captured a Desperate Side of Internet Fraud

Director, producer, and screenplay writer Ebuka Njoku and producer Lorenzo Menakaya on their professional journeys and the making of their Netflix No. 1 hit.
Orji Victor Ebubechukwu

“An ambitious new magazine that is committed to African literature"

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Get the essential stories in African literature + Nigerian film and TV: in-depth, thought-provoking Profiles, features, reviews, and conversations, as well as news on events and opportunities.

We respect your privacy and will never send you Spam or sell your email.

NO, I DON'T CARE ABOUT AFRICAN WHATEVER.

Top