Kenyan Filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu and Ghanaian American Playwright Jocelyn Bioh Collaborating on a Disney+ Project

Wanuri Kahiu will direct the Disney+ film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Once on This Island, reports Hollywood Reporter.

Ghanaian-American playwright and actor, Jocelyn Bioh, who is the writer and co-producer of the HBO adaptation of Americanah, is writing the screen adaptation.

Once on This Island is a musical by Lynn Ahrens based on Rosa Guy’s 1985 novel, My Love, My Love; or, The Peasant Girl.

The story is set in the French Antilles. It tells the tale of an orphan girl who falls in love with an aristocrat descendant of former French colonizers. The girl prays to the four island gods (gods of Earth, Water, Love and Death) for guidance that, as with many a bargain with gods, comes at a dire cost.

Congratulations to Wanuri Kahiu and Jocelyn Bioh!