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.
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