Daniel Kaluuya is attached to star in Netflix’s feature adaptation of upcoming science-fiction novel The Upper World.
Kaluuya will also produce the film along with Screen Arcade’s Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless via their first-look deal at the streamer.
The debut novel from Togo-born, British-Nigerian writer Femi Fadugba follows Esso, a man caught in a deadly feud who realizes he has an unexpected gift: access to a world where he can see glimpses of the past and the future. A generation away, Rhia is walking to football practice in 2035, unaware that the mysterious stranger she’s about to meet desperately needs her help to avert a bullet fired 15 years ago.
The Upper World is the first in a planned series of novels from Penguin U.K. and HarperCollins US, which are expected to publish the book in mid-2021 and early 2022, respectively. Newman brought the property to Netflix.
Fadugba, who will executive produce the Netflix movie, has a master’s degree from Oxford University, where he published papers on quantum physics, and was a Thouron scholar at UPenn. He is repped by CAA and RCW Literary Agency.
Kaluuya, represented by CAA and Management 360, will next be seen in Warner Bros. feature Judas and the Black Messiah.
