British-Nigerian author Bolu Babalola finally let the secret slip: Working Title Films, the production company behind Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, and Love Actually, has optioned her bestselling debut novel Honey and Spice for the big screen!

Even better, Babalola will adapt the screenplay herself, marking her feature film debut. “Some news…. (And the hardest secret to keep),” she announced on Instagram, barely able to contain herself. “So excited to bring Kiki & Malakai’s story to the big screen with @workingtitlefilms! My debut film. And I am writing too!! I am working HARD in the kitchen!”

Honey and Spice, published in July 2022, became an instant phenomenon. The novel follows Kiki Banjo, a sharp-tongued university student at fictional Whitewell College who hosts a radio show warning women about players and “wastemen.” When she publicly brands smooth-talking filmmaker Malakai Korede as one of those wastemen, then accidentally kisses him in front of everyone, they’re forced into a fake relationship to save face. Naturally, real feelings complicate things. The book was chosen for both Reese Witherspoon’s and TikTok’s Book Clubs, won the inaugural TikTok Book of the Year Award, and landed on best-of-the-year lists from Time, NPR, The New York Times, and Waterstones. It’s a rom-com that centers Black British characters with Yoruba culture, Afrobeats, and the messy realities of navigating love and identity at a predominantly white institution.

Working Title’s involvement signals that this adaptation is being taken seriously. The company, co-chaired by Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner since 1992, has essentially defined modern romantic comedy cinema while also producing Oscar winners across other genres. Amelia Granger, Head of Film and Television at Working Title, was effusive about the partnership, noting they’re always searching for the next generation of storytellers who can reinvent rom-coms for contemporary audiences. “We knew we couldn’t miss this opportunity to work with Bolu, a talented writer every bit in the ascendancy, and who has created these wonderful characters who we just want to watch falling in love,” she said. Babalola, for her part, couldn’t be more thrilled to work with “the master of romantic films” on a story so close to her heart.

This isn’t Babalola’s first foray into screenwriting; she created, wrote, and executive-produced the Channel 4 pilot Big Age in 2021. Her earlier short story collection Love in Colour (2020) became a Times bestseller and was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year, while her latest novel Sweet Heat dropped this summer. She’s been building her reputation as what she calls a “romcomoisseur,” and now she gets to prove that her vision translates to cinema. As she wrote in her announcement, thanking God and her readers who have been “harassing me for an adaptation not knowing I was already in the lab lmao,” this journey has been worth every late night and sleepless moment.

For readers who fell in love with Kiki’s wit and Malakai’s quiet charm, the prospect of seeing them on screen is thrilling. #TeamKiKai is officially a go, and honestly? We can’t wait to see what she cooks up. ️