Lupita Nyong’o will produce and star in Americanah

By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky | June 6, 2014 | 5:34pm

Aux Features Film

Lupita Nyong’o took to Instagram last night to announce that she has acquired the rights to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s National Book Critics Circle winner Americanah. Nyong’o will star in the film adaptation, which will be co-produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B—the same company that produced 12 Years A Slave, the movie that first endeared Nyong’o to awards-giving bodies and Tumblrs across America.

Americanah centers on Ifemelu (the role presumably played by Nyong’o) and Obinze, a Nigerian couple who split up when the former successfully emigrates to the U.S and reunite when she returns to Nigeria years later. Coincidentally, Adichie’s previous novel, Half Of A Yellow Sun, was previously adapted into a film starring Nyong’o’s 12 Years A Slave co-star, Chiwetel Ejiofor.