Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o will reunite with 12 Years a Slave co-star/producer Brad Pitt to star in a film adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Americanah. In 2014 Americanah was shortlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and focuses on the relationship between young Nigerian couple Ifemelu and Obinze. Torn apart by immigration and circumstance they spend many years apart, will the time and distance have separated them forever?

Lupita Nyong'o AmericanahLupita Nyong'o has been cast to star in the film adapation of Americanah, which will be made by Brad Pitt's production company

Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B, the company behind 12 Years a Slave, will make the film and Nyong’o is pegged to star in, as well as produce, the project. The actress released a statement saying it is an “honour to bring Ms. Adichie’s brilliant book to the screen.” She continued, “Page after page I was struck by Ifemelu and Obinze’s stories, whose experiences as African immigrants are so specific and also so imminently relatable. It is a thrilling challenge to tell a truly international story so fill of love, humour and heart.”

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Earlier this year Nyong’o won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. She has since been cast in JJ Abram’s upcoming addition to the Star Wars franchise, Star Wars Episode VII. Abrams decision has solidified Nyong’o’s star status and confirmed her as one of the most in-demand actresses in the world.

It’s still yet to be confirmed who will be playing the role of Obinze in the film adaption of Americanah. While Ifemelu leaves the military dictatorship of Nigeria for America, where she becomes a blogger, Obinze is unable to enter the country post-9/11 and instead is forced into the dangerous underbelly of London. Managing to raise himself financially he becomes wealthy in democratic Nigeria and thirteen years pass between the couple seeing one another. Their lives are unrecognisable from the last time they saw one another and Americanah touches on the courage it takes to reunite after life has taken you so far from one another.

Brad Pitt AmericanahBrad Pitt's production company, Plan B, will produce the film adaption of Americanah

On top of earning a Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction nomination, Americanah won the 2013 US National Book Critics Citcle award for fiction as well as being named one of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 best obooks of the year. Adichie is also the author of another book recently adapted for film, Half of a Yellow Sun, starring Thandie Newton and John Boyega.

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