EXCLUSIVE: UK production dynamo Working Title has optioned slasher satire My Sister The Serial Killer with a view to turning the upcoming book into a feature, I understand.
The debut novel of Nigerian writer Oyinkan Braithwaite follows a Nigerian woman whose younger sister has an inconvenient habit of killing her boyfriends. The Darkest Hour producer optioned the book and will produce it with Big Talk’s Nira Park and Rachael Prior. It’s early days and a screenwriter has not been set but Working Title loved the book’s potential.
The darkly comedic story, buzzed-about in publishing circles, was previously snapped up by U.S. publisher Doubleday as part of a significant five-figure advance and is set to hit shelves stateside later this year. Atlantic will publish in the UK. Aitken Alexander handled the screen rights.
Braithwaite is a graduate of Creative Writing and Law from Kingston University who worked as an assistant editor at Nigerian publishing house Kachifo. In 2016 she was a finalist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Here’s one publisher’s longer synopsis for the novel: ‘Korede is bitter. How could she not be? Her sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit. A kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where Korede works, is the bright spot in her life. She dreams of the day when he will realize they’re perfect for each other. But one day Ayoola shows up to the hospital uninvited and he takes notice. When he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and what she will do about it.’
Big Talk recently collaborated with Working Title on box office and critical hit Baby Driver. The two are currently in production on Joe Cornish’s adventure movie The Kid Who Would Be King which they are making for 20th Century Fox. The film stars Louis Ashbourne Serkis, Tom Taylor, Angus Imrie, Denise Gough, Sir Patrick Stewart and Rebecca Ferguson, and is due for a September 2018 release. Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, starring Ansel Elgort, Lily James, Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey, scored 3 Oscar nominations and has grossed over $220M worldwide.
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