Nollywood gives us the best, but some storylines feel over recycled, and I honestly don’t understand why! when some of the best scripts have been sitting on our bookshelves this whole time, gathering dust.
Some of these books practically come pre-loaded with soundtrack, cast list, and trailer moment. Somebody just needs to see the visionnnnn.
Personally, I would love to see a movie made out of these books:
1.Purple Hibiscus — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A wealthy, deeply religious household hiding abuse behind closed doors, told through a teenage girl slowly finding her voice.
This is exactly the kind of story that wins festival buzz and makes people leave the cinema in silence, thinking of the masterpiece they have just seen. .
This movie will have us all trooping into the cinemas to finally get a look at the faces behind the book we read in secondary school.
2. Freshwater — Akwaeke Emezi
A story built around Igbo spirituality and multiple selves inhabiting one body. This could be Nollywood’s answer to the psychological, boundary-pushing films that keep winning international attention.
It’s not an easy adaptation, but the visual and sonic possibilities alone make it worth the risk.
This one would be so mind blowing! omoooo
3. Death and the King’s Horseman — Wole Soyinka
Technically a play, but that’s exactly why it should be a film, it already has the structure.
A colonial district officer interrupts a sacred Yoruba ritual suicide meant to accompany a dead king into the afterlife, and everything that follows is tragedy stacked on tragedy.
Soyinka wrote something that’s part ritual, part colonial clash, part family betrayal, and entirely cinematic if a director trusts the source material instead of softening it.
4. Lonely Days — Bayo Adebowale
Most of us read this book for JAMB, WAEC or just leisure, but bottom-line is, you know the story.
Set in the village of Kufi, this one follows Yaremi, a widow who refuses to bow to tradition after her husband’s sudden death, no remarriage, no inheritance by some uncle, none of it.
It’s quiet, character-driven fire, the kind of story that could carry a whole film on one woman’s stubborn dignity alone.
Adebowale’s earlier novel The Virgin already got adapted twice, so the appetite for his work exists.
Somebody just needs to continue the good work!
5. The Fishermen — Chigozie Obioma
Four brothers, a terrifying prophecy, and a small decision that spirals into tragedy neither they nor their family can outrun.
This one is basically begging to be made into a movie ASAP!
Nollywood rarely does slow dread well, but this story could change that reputation.
6. Adanna — Adesuwa O’Man Nwokedi
A murder, a much older husband, and a young woman’s past catching up in the worst way, this one reads like it was already storyboarded for a psychological thriller.
The book scarred me, and I am very sure it would have that same effect if made into a movie.
Trust me, this one would slap for real.
0 Comments