After starring in Jordan Peele‘s Oscar-winning “Get Out,” Daniel Kaluuya‘s career skyrocketed, with Kaluuya giving fantastic performances in the likes of “Black Panther” and “Widows.” Now, it seems Netflix is giving Kaluuya the chance to play the lead in their new sci-fi film “The Upper World.”
“The Upper World” is based the upcoming sci-fi novel of the same name by Togo-born, British-Nigerian writer Femi Fadugba. The book seems to be the first of a series of YA novels, with the first one slated to be published in 2022. Kaluuya plays a man who can see glimpses of both the past and the future, who recruits the help of a young woman to avert a bullet being fired in the past.
In addition to starring in the film, Kaluuya will also produce the film alongside Screen Arcade‘s Eric Newman and Bryan Unkeless. Fadugba is also a physicist in addition to a novelist and will be executive producing the film. It will be interesting to see how his background will inform the science of “The Upper World.”
In a statement to Variety, the author explained that “throughout my life, I’ve lived in places like Kigali, Somerset, Oxford, and Philadelphia, which has always made me wonder: how do I reconcile these contrasting environments I grew up in with each other? …Then one day, came a mad realization—that I could combine the story of a kid from South London with the physics of time travel. And maybe even make it gripping enough that the nerds, the hustlers, the jocks (and the rest of us in between) would all want to read it.”
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Here’s the official synopsis for Fadugba’s book: “Set in Peckham, London, the story follows Esso, who is caught in a deadly feud and on the verge of expulsion when he realizes he has an unexpected gift: access to a world where he can see glimpses of the past and the future. A generation away, Rhia is walking to football practice in 2035, unaware that the mysterious stranger she’s about to meet desperately needs her help to avert a bullet fired fifteen years ago.“