The film rights to Annaka, the YA novel written by African-Nova Scotian author Andre Fenton, have been scooped up by Halifax’s Fine Devils Films.

Fenton is also penning the screenplay for the film adaptation of the story, about family, identity and reclaiming the past. Fine Devils Films founders Cory Bowles (pictured above, right) and Aaron Horton (pictured above, left) (Black Cop) are attached to produce.

Horton tells Playback Daily they’re early in the development stage, with Fenton having completed a first draft of the script and now working on a second pass. They’ll likely go the Telefilm Canada route for financing and tap the Nova Scotia tax credit for a portion of it as well. The feature is currently budgeted in the $1 million range.

The producers hope to shoot later next year in Nova Scotia (Halifax/Yarmouth) and then hit the festival circuit.

Issued by Nimbus Publishing and shortlisted at the 2021 Atlantic Book Awards for the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, Annaka is set in Yarmouth, N.S., where the main character has returned to mourn the death of a loved one and faces mysteries from her past.

Halifax-based Fenton (pictured right) is a spoken-word artist, arts educator and author of three young-adult fiction novels, including 2018’s Worthy of Love and 2022’s The Summer Between Us. He has facilitated young writer and performer workshops at over 50 Nova Scotia schools and won 2015’s The Spirit of The Slam Award.

Fine Devil Films was established in 2016 as an independent production company by producer Horton and writer-director Bowles. Black Cop, their first feature, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 and won the John Dunning Discovery Award at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards as well as the Best Canadian Feature Film prize at the Vancouver, Atlantic and Edmonton International Film Festivals.

In a statement, Bowles said Fenton’s story aligns with Fine Devil Films’ “directive to support and discover new, upcoming voices,” adding they are “proud to team up with another Nova Scotian artist and share Annaka with the world.”

With files from Victoria Ahearn

Image by Hermann Traub from Pixabay