by Rachel Ogbu//

Nigerian-British writer and director Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is directing a screenplay based on his autobiographical story, “Farming.”

Kate Beckinsale, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and Damson Idris will all star in the film with Idris playing a young Akinnuoye-Agbaje. The screenplay shows how he grew up being fostered by a white working class family in the U.K.

According to some reports, in real life, Akinnuoye-Agbaje was born in Islington, London to Nigerian parents.When he was only six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working-class family in Tilbury. When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and forbidden by his parents to speak English, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter. The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly English culture and the environment he was raised in.

As a teenager facing a cultural identity crisis, he joined a local skinhead gang in order to escape racial persecution at their hands. At 16 years old, having become a violent thief, his foster parents sent him to a boarding school in Surrey where he ultimately attempted suicide before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around.

Surely this makes an interesting story and we are looking forward to seeing how it plays out on screen. In the movie, his parents send him to the UK hoping he will have a better life there but when he turns to gangs and robbery, a kind teacher (played by Mbatha-Raw) gives him one last opportunity at redemption.

“I’m thrilled to be finally bringing this important story to the world, which will serve as the voice of a forgotten generation,” says Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje has a degree in Law from King’s College London and a Masters in Law from the University of London. He starred in Thor: The Dark World as Kurse, as Malko in the fifth season of Game of Thrones, as Croc in Suicide Squad, and as Mr. Eko in Lost. 

He was also in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls,  The Mummy Returns, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.

Rachel Ogbu

UK Based Strategic, multidisciplinary Writer with an eye for innovation and pixel perfection. MA in New Media and Internet Technologies. “Although my skill set is vast, my greatest expertise revolve in the worlds of social media, content creation and print collateral. My wish is to combine my knowledge and experience in these areas, to deliver the best creative to my employer’s clients and their audiences.”