Award-winning author, Anietie Isong, will soon see his novel, Radio Sunrise, come to life as production for the film adaptation will begin in early 2022.
The novel, Radio Sunrise, which was listed for the 9mobile Prize for Literature in 2018 and won the 2018 Mckitterick Prize, will see two leading production companies in Nigeria – Royal Arts Academy and Closer Pictures – handle its production.
Speaking on the novel which will be shot in Lagos and the Niger Delta, Isong said: “I am very excited about the screen adaption of my first novel. Our film industry has come a long way, so I have no doubt the talented cast and crew will do justice to the script.”
Radio Sunrise was first published in the UK in 2017 and has been republished in Nigeria by Narrative Landscape Press.
The novel is a hilarious, yet sobering satirical portrait of Nigeria. The protagonist, Ifiok, works in a Lagos-based radio station and is unhappy with the media’s propagation of falsehood as well as the practice of accepting cash from news sources. Sadly, he cannot effect change as he is forced to join the bandwagon due to circumstances beyond his control. When he travels to his hometown to make a documentary about a band of ex-militants, he is forced to confront the ugly truth about the future of his beloved country and his existence within it.
