Christopher Hampton To Pen Movie Adaptation of Novel ‘Ali & Nino’

LONDON – Oscar winning scribe Christopher Hampton is penning a big screen adaptation of novel Ali & Nino, by Kurban Said.

British production banner PeaPie Films, headed by producer Kris Thykier, has snapped up the movie rights to the book and will produce.

Said's epic love story is one of the most original works of 20th literature and since its initial publication in 1937, it has been translated into 33 languages worldwide with nearly 100 reprints.

Thykier, whose producer resume boasts Stardust, Kick-Ass, Harry Brown, The Debt and the Madonna directed W.E., will produce with Leyla Aliyeva serving as executive producer.

Ali Khan and Nino Kipiani live in Baku, the cosmopolitan, oil-rich capital of Azerbaijan which, at the beginning of the twentieth century, is a melting-pot of different cultures. Ali is a Muslim and Nino is a Christian Georgian girl with sophisticated European ways. Despite their differences, the two have loved each other since childhood and Ali is determined that he will marry Nino as soon as she leaves school.

Hampton secured an Academy Award in 1988 for his adaptation of his own play Dangerous Liaisons.

Hampton said: “From the moment I read the book I fell in love with this story which is beautifully written and in many ways as relevant and resonant now as it was when it was first published.”