As Variety reports, Hakeem Kae-Kazeem is set to make his directorial debut with the feature film It’s the Blackness. The film will also be written and produced by newcomer, Dapo Oshiyemi.
It’s the Blackness centers around a pair of ambitious graduates from a prestigious university who must navigate their post-graduate struggles of building a stable life for themselves in advanced careers with room for love all while battling institutional and structural racism in modern Britain.
Kae-Kazeem said in a statement, “I breathe this world, I grew up in it, It’s about my community, my family and not just about the struggles we face but the culture, family dynamics and love and happiness we experience, which is rarely seen on the big screen.”
Oshiyemi’s U.K. based production company, Talking Drum Entertainment, will produce It’s the Blackness. Its mission is to support the development and production of Black TV and film for a global audience.
Though this is Kae-Kazeem’s first turn behind the camera, his experience in front of the camera has spanned over a decade. He has appeared in films including X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007), and in the television series Black Sails, 24, and Gotham. He is currently filming for the series Dangerous Liaisons where he stars with Paloma Faith, Nicholas Denton, and Alice Englert.
Casting has yet to be announced.
The film, currently in pre-production, is set to start principal photography in March/April in London.
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