Mcqueen To Direct Fela Kuti Biopic

British filmmaker Steve McQueen has signed on to bring African musician and activist Fela Kuti's life to the big screen.
The Hunger director will adapt Michael Veal's book Fela: The Life & Times of an African Musical Icon with Biyi Bandele.
Interest in Fela Kuti, who died in 1997, has spiked this year (09) following the success of a musical about the Afrobeat superstar.
Will Smith and Jay-Z have become investors in the stage show, which has no connection to MCQueen's film project.
Kuti lived a controversial life; he had 27 wives and often paid a high price for speaking out against oppression in his native Nigeria - in one attack on his home, the musician's mother was killed. He responded by placing her coffin on the steps of the Nigerian leader's residence.