The Death of Vivek Oji author Akwaeke Emezi has signed with UTA.
The best-selling author is also well-known for their semi-autobiographical debut novel, Freshwater, and young adult fiction novel, Pet, as well as the follow-up book, Bitter. Amazon and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society won an auction for the screen rights to Emezi’s romance novel, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.
Emezi has also written and directed experimental short films, including Ududeagu, Hey Celestial, and Waiting All Night, and released a rap single, “Banye,” which Emezi will perform at the Afropunk Festival in New York.
The author, whose work often centers on gender and self-identity and the body, was featured on the cover of Time as part of the magazine’s Next Generation Leaders list. Emezi was born in Nigeria, where many of their novels are set, and then immigrated to the U.S.
UTA...
The best-selling author is also well-known for their semi-autobiographical debut novel, Freshwater, and young adult fiction novel, Pet, as well as the follow-up book, Bitter. Amazon and Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society won an auction for the screen rights to Emezi’s romance novel, You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty.
Emezi has also written and directed experimental short films, including Ududeagu, Hey Celestial, and Waiting All Night, and released a rap single, “Banye,” which Emezi will perform at the Afropunk Festival in New York.
The author, whose work often centers on gender and self-identity and the body, was featured on the cover of Time as part of the magazine’s Next Generation Leaders list. Emezi was born in Nigeria, where many of their novels are set, and then immigrated to the U.S.
UTA...
- 8/11/2023
- by Caitlin Huston
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jennifer Hudson, Trevor Noah and Viola Davis are among the winners from the second night of the NAACP Image Awards‘ non-televised ceremonies.
Hudson won for hosting her eponymous daytime talk show, while the Noah-hosted Daily Show won best variety or game show series or special and Davis, just a little over two weeks after achieving Egot status with her Grammy win, took home the award for best literary work, non-fiction for Finding Me.
Other high-profile winners Tuesday night, which featured literary, variety show, reality program and news information categories, include Michael K. Williams and Jon Sternfeld’s Scenes from My Life and Stacey Abrams for outstanding literary work – children for Stacey’s Remarkable Books, written with Kitt Thomas.
Additionally, Lizzo’s reality TV series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls added to its trophy collection, winning best reality program, competition or game show series. And Robin Roberts’ conversation with Michelle Obama...
Hudson won for hosting her eponymous daytime talk show, while the Noah-hosted Daily Show won best variety or game show series or special and Davis, just a little over two weeks after achieving Egot status with her Grammy win, took home the award for best literary work, non-fiction for Finding Me.
Other high-profile winners Tuesday night, which featured literary, variety show, reality program and news information categories, include Michael K. Williams and Jon Sternfeld’s Scenes from My Life and Stacey Abrams for outstanding literary work – children for Stacey’s Remarkable Books, written with Kitt Thomas.
Additionally, Lizzo’s reality TV series Watch Out for the Big Grrrls added to its trophy collection, winning best reality program, competition or game show series. And Robin Roberts’ conversation with Michelle Obama...
- 2/22/2023
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Warner Bros. is really upping the stakes to its I Am Legend franchise to a stratospheric level and bringing back for the next chapter, not just original star Will Smith, but he’ll be joined by Black Panther actor Michael B. Jordan in what will rep the duo’s first big movie together as stars and producers. Talk about two big stars getting together, between Smith and Jordan combined, their movies have grossed a massive $12.3 billion at the box office.
Plot details, of course, are being kept under wraps.
Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the Richard Matheson 1954 novel, is also returning to pen the follow-up and producer as well.
All these deals are closed, I understand, and a director is not attached as of yet as the project is still being developed. Francis Lawrence directed the original 2007 movie.
Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo are producing via their Outlier Society banner.
Plot details, of course, are being kept under wraps.
Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the Richard Matheson 1954 novel, is also returning to pen the follow-up and producer as well.
All these deals are closed, I understand, and a director is not attached as of yet as the project is still being developed. Francis Lawrence directed the original 2007 movie.
Jordan and Elizabeth Raposo are producing via their Outlier Society banner.
- 3/4/2022
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Today’s young adult books bring romance, adventure and social commentary. Take a look at our best bets for what to read this February.
Reclaim the Stars by Zoraida Córdova et al.
Type: Anthology
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release date: Feb. 15
Den of Geek says: We know Córdova from her Star Wars books, but the wide range of authors here on display promises a neat collection of fantasy and science fiction.
Publisher’s summary: From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, Reclaim The Stars takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world.
Follow princesses warring in space, haunting ghost stories in Argentina, mermaids off the coast of the Caribbean, swamps that whisper secrets, and many more realms explored and unexplored; this stunning collection of seventeen short stories breaks borders...
Reclaim the Stars by Zoraida Córdova et al.
Type: Anthology
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Release date: Feb. 15
Den of Geek says: We know Córdova from her Star Wars books, but the wide range of authors here on display promises a neat collection of fantasy and science fiction.
Publisher’s summary: From stories that take you to the stars, to stories that span into other times and realms, to stories set in the magical now, Reclaim The Stars takes the Latin American diaspora to places fantastical and out of this world.
Follow princesses warring in space, haunting ghost stories in Argentina, mermaids off the coast of the Caribbean, swamps that whisper secrets, and many more realms explored and unexplored; this stunning collection of seventeen short stories breaks borders...
- 2/10/2022
- by Megan Crouse
- Den of Geek
Exclusive: Darnell Metayer & Josh Peters are set to write Val Zod, the HBO Max adaptation that Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society is producing for DC Entertainment and Warner Bros Television.
Val Zod is the story of another Kryptonian with powers who hails from the same doomed planet as Superman. The hero is Black, and he finds refuge on Earth 2. Like the original Man of Steel, he is sheltered on his adopted planet but eventually in the comics is pitted against a brainwashed Superman.
Metayer & Peters are prolific television and feature writers who broke onto the scene with their original pilot American Snow. Their project The Nola sold to Amazon with Sam Raimi directing. Their one-hour pilot, Hannibal, based on the life of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, they scripted for Scott Free and Endeavor Content. Apple preemptively bought it with Creed II helmer Steven J. Caple Jr attached to direct.
Val Zod is the story of another Kryptonian with powers who hails from the same doomed planet as Superman. The hero is Black, and he finds refuge on Earth 2. Like the original Man of Steel, he is sheltered on his adopted planet but eventually in the comics is pitted against a brainwashed Superman.
Metayer & Peters are prolific television and feature writers who broke onto the scene with their original pilot American Snow. Their project The Nola sold to Amazon with Sam Raimi directing. Their one-hour pilot, Hannibal, based on the life of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, they scripted for Scott Free and Endeavor Content. Apple preemptively bought it with Creed II helmer Steven J. Caple Jr attached to direct.
- 10/26/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society has come aboard to produce the Sony TriStar Pictures adaptation of N.K Jemisin’s The Broken Earth, which the studio acquired last summer in a seven-figure deal with the intention of turning it into a fantasy-action franchise. Jordan and Outlier Society President Elizabeth Raposo will produce the film adaptation via the Outlier Society banner. Jemisin is writing the script.
Each book in Jemisin’s series — The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky — won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making her the first person to win the award three years in a row and the first to win for all three books in a trilogy.
The Fifth Season establishes the setting, a harsh futuristic Earth and a continent called the Stillness, which endures seasonal apocalyptic events that shake the world and its inhabitants during these “seasons.” They hole up in communities and then rebuild.
Each book in Jemisin’s series — The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky — won the Hugo Award for Best Novel, making her the first person to win the award three years in a row and the first to win for all three books in a trilogy.
The Fifth Season establishes the setting, a harsh futuristic Earth and a continent called the Stillness, which endures seasonal apocalyptic events that shake the world and its inhabitants during these “seasons.” They hole up in communities and then rebuild.
- 9/29/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Amazon Studios has put in development Victories Greater Than Death, a series based on Charlie Jane Anders’ novel, from Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society. A writer is not yet attached. The project falls under Jordan’s overall deal at Amazon Studios.
Per the synopsis: “High school can be rough. It’s hard to fit in, yet impossible to be invisible, and when everyone is desperately trying to figure out who they are and where they are going in life it doesn’t help Tina that she’s hiding a deep secret. She’s the keeper of an interplanetary beacon that will activate someday soon, calling her home as the clone of an alien charged with saving the galaxy. But, for as much as she feels destined to fulfill her mission, she first has to grapple with the complications with the humans in her life. As Tina prepares to take...
Per the synopsis: “High school can be rough. It’s hard to fit in, yet impossible to be invisible, and when everyone is desperately trying to figure out who they are and where they are going in life it doesn’t help Tina that she’s hiding a deep secret. She’s the keeper of an interplanetary beacon that will activate someday soon, calling her home as the clone of an alien charged with saving the galaxy. But, for as much as she feels destined to fulfill her mission, she first has to grapple with the complications with the humans in her life. As Tina prepares to take...
- 9/13/2021
- by Denise Petski
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Amazon Studios has won an auction for the screen rights to You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty, a novel by Akwaeke Emezi that the Simon & Schuster imprint Atria will publish in 2022. Michael B. Jordan’s Outlier Society will develop it. Jordan, whose new film Without Remorse opens Friday on Amazon Prime, berthed his production company at Amazon and this is the first major film property acquisition.
The book sold in a bidding battle, in the vicinity of high six against low seven figures, one of the biggest book deals of the year so far and one that was highly competitive. There were eight offers from studios, some with filmmakers attached. Jordan and Outlier Society’s Elizabeth Raposo chased it hard. Emezi will be executive producer.
The protagonist is a beautiful Nigerian 29-year old aspiring artist in Brooklyn who loses her husband in a tragic accident.
The book sold in a bidding battle, in the vicinity of high six against low seven figures, one of the biggest book deals of the year so far and one that was highly competitive. There were eight offers from studios, some with filmmakers attached. Jordan and Outlier Society’s Elizabeth Raposo chased it hard. Emezi will be executive producer.
The protagonist is a beautiful Nigerian 29-year old aspiring artist in Brooklyn who loses her husband in a tragic accident.
- 4/29/2021
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
New York Times bestselling author and artist Akwaeke Emezi has signed with Verve.
Emezi’s first novel Freshwater is currently in development to be adapted as an FX series with Emezi writing and executive producing alongside Verve client Tamara P. Carter (P-Valley, The Leftovers).
Published in 2018, the novel won the 2019 Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree) and the Nommo Award. Freshwater was also shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Nypl Young Lions Fiction Award, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and a Lambda Literary Award.
Emezi’s bestselling sophomore adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji was published last ...
Emezi’s first novel Freshwater is currently in development to be adapted as an FX series with Emezi writing and executive producing alongside Verve client Tamara P. Carter (P-Valley, The Leftovers).
Published in 2018, the novel won the 2019 Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree) and the Nommo Award. Freshwater was also shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Nypl Young Lions Fiction Award, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and a Lambda Literary Award.
Emezi’s bestselling sophomore adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji was published last ...
New York Times bestselling author and artist Akwaeke Emezi has signed with Verve.
Emezi’s first novel Freshwater is currently in development to be adapted as an FX series with Emezi writing and executive producing alongside Verve client Tamara P. Carter (P-Valley, The Leftovers).
Published in 2018, the novel won the 2019 Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree) and the Nommo Award. Freshwater was also shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Nypl Young Lions Fiction Award, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and a Lambda Literary Award.
Emezi’s bestselling sophomore adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji was published last ...
Emezi’s first novel Freshwater is currently in development to be adapted as an FX series with Emezi writing and executive producing alongside Verve client Tamara P. Carter (P-Valley, The Leftovers).
Published in 2018, the novel won the 2019 Otherwise Award (formerly the Tiptree) and the Nommo Award. Freshwater was also shortlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, the Pen/Hemingway Award, the Nypl Young Lions Fiction Award, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and a Lambda Literary Award.
Emezi’s bestselling sophomore adult novel The Death of Vivek Oji was published last ...
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