The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah is scheduled to produce a movie about an 8-year-old Nigerian Chess Prodigy who won the 2019 New York chess championship, Deadline reports.
The movie will tell the story of the Adewumi family, who fled their home country and sought asylum in the United States. While living in a homeless shelter, 8 year old Tani Adewumi won the 2019 New York City chess championship. Young Tani had only been playing chess for 2 years and fought to win the championship, despite his circumstances.
The family’s story was picked up by HarperCollins Publishing and the movie, acquired by Paramount, is centered around the series of books HarperCollins will be publishing in 2020. Noah and his partner Haroon Saleem (The Pursuit of Happyness) are producing the film under their Day Zero Productions along with George Tillman Jr. and Bob Teitel’s State Street Pictures (The Hate U Give).
The movie is a story of love, peace, community and faith that seeks to elevate Tani’s story which has already inspired people around the world after going viral.
No word yet on when the film will be released but we’ll be looking out for it!