Who Fears Death Optioned for a Film

My novel, Who Fears Death, has been optioned by film producer Kisha Cameron-Dingle. Kisha is the program director of the Focus Features Africa First Short Film Program, a program for filmmakers from Africa. She associate produced “Sometimes in April” and “Bamboozled."

Needless to say, I’m very excited. This is one of those things where it is clear that the ancestors helped this to happen.

Kisha and I met up some weeks ago. When I handed her a copy of Who Fears Death, I didn’t expect her to get to it for a while. Nevertheless, days later, she found herself in the hair salon needing something to read. She happened to have Who Fears Death with her. Once she started it, she devoured it in a matter of days.

Most intriguing is the group of artists Kisha is gathering to push this film into being. Things are still coming together but I can say that award-winning Kenyan film director Wanuri Kahiu (who wrote and directed Pumzi) will direct the film.

As all this was coming together, two weeks ago Wanuri and I both happened to be in Port of Spain, Trinidad at the same time (I was there to do some author events for Trinidad/Tobago's National Library Week and she was there for the screening of Pumzi at a film festival). And so it was in this most intriguing part of the world that we met in person for the first time.

Wanuri and me at the library in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

When we spoke, it was clear that we had potent creative chemistry. She had read two thirds of Who Fears Death and the ideas she was throwing at me had me grinning for the rest of my time there. Respect to the ancestors.

I’m not going to dwell on the likelihood/unlikelihood of books making it to film…just as I never dwelled on the likelihood/unlikelihood of having my strange African speculative fiction stories make it to print. I’ll just keep doing what I do and celebrating such landmarks as they come. This one is cool as heck.

See me doing a happy dance and throwing confetti!

Here are trailers for two of Wanuri's films: