What a week!
Deadline Hollywood just reported that SunnyMarch will co-produce a feature film based on the life of Omoba Aina, a 19th century West African princess who, after being enslaved by King Ghezo of Dahomey in the aftermath of a war with his kingdom, was ”gifted” to Queen Victoria and given the name Sarah Forbes Bonetta, becoming her protégé.
Starring Cynthia Erivo, who is also co-producing, the movie will have the the biography At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England by Walter Dean Myers as its source material. Check out the full article below:
Harriet Actress Cynthia Erivo To Star In & Produce Story Of Princess ‘Gifted’ To Queen Victoria; BBC Film, Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch & So So Producing
By Andreas Wiseman
EXCLUSIVE: Two-time Oscar-nominee Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) is to star in and produce a film based on the remarkable life of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, a 19th Century African princess ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria after she was orphaned and enslaved by a west African king.
Erivo produces with her Edith’s Daughter partner Solome Williams, alongside SunnyMarch’s Leah Clarke and Adam Ackland, and Rienkje Attoh from So & So Productions. Benedict Cumberbatch will executive-produce.
Development is financed by BBC Film [which underwent a re-brand earlier this year and is now singular rather than Films]. Walter Dean Myers’ biography At Her Majesty’s Request has been optioned as source material.
Born Omoba Aina, an Egbado princess of the Yoruba people, Aina was ‘gifted’ to Queen Victoria in 1850, taken to England, and renamed Sarah Forbes Bonetta. The Queen’s patronship was a thorny rose that put Sarah at the centre of British aristocracy but did not shield her from public scrutiny, personal suffering, or the dangers of a capricious court which was fundamentally suspicious of her as a strong, educated Black woman.
The filmmakers are planning for the biopic to be a celebration of Bonetta as a strategic, determined heroine who found a way to embrace her Black-ness, her African-ness and to ultimately find love: forging a path for herself that honoured both her heritage and her upbringing.
Erivo said: “I am excited to embark on this journey. It has taken a long time to get to a point where we can even begin to realize this dream. As a Nigerian British woman, to get the opportunity to tell the story of another Nigerian British woman who until now has been erased from the history books, is an honor. Miss Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Omoba Aina, is truly a passion of mine and I’m so pleased to have been able to find partners in the incredible women, Leah Clarke and Rienkje Attoh, to tell the story and finally give her a voice. I cannot wait to dive into her story. She is indeed the forgotten princess, forgotten no more.”
SunnyMarch’s Leah Clarke said: “It is a real privilege to be working on Sarah’s story with this incredible team. Together we hope to bring audiences a bold, modern portrait of an extraordinary woman.”
Tony, Emmy and Grammy winner Erivo burst onto West End and Broadway stages in The Color Purple, and garnered acclaim last year for slavery drama Harriet. She currently stars in HBO series The Outsider and upcoming she will play Aretha Franklin on National Geographic’s Genius: Aretha and will star in Universal’s Talent Show.
SunnyMarch’s 2021 slate includes Kevin Macdonald’s The Mauritanian based on Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s best-selling memoir Guantanamo Diary; The Courier, the Cold War spy thriller directed by Dominic Cooke; and the biopic of the artist Louis Wain, directed by Will Sharpe.
Rienkje’s company So & So Productions was awarded a British Film Institute Vision Award to develop her slate of film and TV projects. Her debut feature was A Moving Image about London’s gentrification, and she recently co-produced the TV drama adaptation of Noughts + Crosses. In 2021 she’ll produce You Don’t Know Me for BBC One.
Source: Deadline Hollywood
