Thomas “Eromose” Ikimi, director of the Tribeca Film Festival’s “88,” has been tapped to write a new drama about a fierce wildlife activist and conservationist.
Eromose will write the script for “Manaka,” a story inspired by the organization Saving the Wild and its founder Jamie Joseph. The Zimbabwe-born South African founded the charitable foundation to help protect rhinos from poaching, as well as to tell authentic stories about the frontline workers protecting the species from extinction.
Robbie and LuckyChap partners Tom Ackerley and Josey McNamara will produce alongside Anthony Mastromauro for IM Entertainment and Charles Randolph. Brad Feinstein also produces and finances through his company Romulus Entertainment, along with his development partner Christina Weiss Lurie of Fourth & Twenty Eight.
“It is an honor to work on a project of such importance for Africa. The complex rhino poaching crisis exposes wider ramifications, not just for South Africa, but for the entire continent. The issue is much deeper than the search for rhino horns,” Eromose said. “I’m excited to create this visceral action thriller that will finally bring this most urgent human crisis to the mainstream.”
Eromose is Esan, a tribe of the Edo people of the Kingdom of Benin in present-day Nigeria. He spent his childhood in Nigeria and England before studying at Columbia University in New York. His first feature film, “Legacy,” premiered at Tribeca in 2010. “88” premiered through Samuel Goldwyn Films in March.
Eromose is represented by United Agents in the UK and by Jeff Finkelstein and Tom Greenberg of Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang. LuckyChap is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360, Narrative and attorney Jeff Bernstein, Mastromauro is represented by Linda Lichter of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler & Feldman and Romulus by Larry Weinberg.
