Kenyadian Productions a Kenya/Canada production company has confirmed that they have begun penning a screenplay adaptation of Kenyan author John Kirimati’s bestselling novels- My Life In Crime, My life With A Criminal and My Life in Prison. The production company, which was in talks with East Africa Publishers for 2 years for the film rights, recently secured the film rights for 7 years.
My Life In Crime (working title) is slated to begin filming at the end of 2011 with the release due in 2012. “We are still not sure of the title of the movie yet,” said Neil Schell Director and producer of the film. “We thought we would use the most popular book’s title- My Life In Crime, because it easily translates to Kenyans and it also gives anyone unfamiliar with the books a clue as to what the film is about.”
The treatment for My Life in Crime, which will combine all three books, has recently been completed. “I was very particular about how the story was to be laid out which is what is done during the treatment stage,” said Schell. “There are so many story events in the three books that one has to decide what to leave in and what to leave out and then appropriately build the story so that the audience enjoys the movie the entire way.”
Schell explained that they have commissioned gifted Kenyan writer Serah Mwihaki to pen the screenplay adaptation of the book based on her quality. “We decided to go with Serah after many interviews with many writers here in Kenya,” Schell stated. “Out of all the applications Serah’s work was the most exciting and interesting. She captured the essence of the story and that is crucial.”
As the title suggests the My Life In Crime book series is an autobiographical tale of John Kiriamiti a Kenyan criminal who featured on the country’s most wanted list in the 1960s and 1970s. In the books Kiriamiti re-counts how he got into the life of criminality as a petty thief, his rise into the Kenyan most wanted list and his subsequent incarceration. It was during his stay in prison that Kiriamiti wrote My Life in Crime, the first book in the series. The book has since been chronicled as Kenya’s best‐selling novel of the early 1980s.
Schell, who has appeared in films such as A-Team, Watchmen, Dr. Dolittle and directed several TV series’, stated that the film will be a period piece. “My Life In Crime will be true to the time period- Kenya in the late 60’s through to the mid 80’s,” he said. “The film will be gritty, hard and be filled with all the action a highly sought after gangster can muster up.”
