Turning books into movies

John Kiriamiti, a former bank robber turned author whose books are being adapted for the screen. PHOTO | FILE

What you need to know:

  • With all the information that is available on Kiriamiti, it would have been incredible to see those books made into a big budget movie production and watch how Jack Zollo evolved from a small time pick pocket to Kenya’s “Most wanted criminal”.
  • The late Mwangi Gicheru, author of the highly acclaimed book Across the Bridge wanted to turn the book into a movie before he died, reveals Kiriamiti.
  • There are a lot of books being turned into movies, at least on the Hollywood scale, and it is only a matter of time before Kenya latches on to that bandwagon.

America has Al Capone, Ted Bundy and John Dillinger, gangsters who were so efficiently ruthless in their criminal activities that they effortlessly captured people’s imagination.

In Kenya, we have John Kiriamiti.

He was a common thief, a pickpocket, a bank robber, an outlaw, a fugitive and finally a convicted criminal. Many have read his books and there probably hasn’t been another criminal who can match Kiriamiti, a man who terrorised the public in the 1960’s always managing to evade police dragnets until his capture on the eve of his wedding in November 1970.

My life in crime is the first of three fictional books based on John Kiriamiti’s crimes under the alias Jack Zollo, followed by My life with a criminal and My life in prison. John Kiriamiti’s books are among the most read and best-selling fiction books in the country to date.

For those unfortunate to never have read the books the story goes thus: Kiriamiti’s kicked out of school and his family orders him to return to his rural home, but he somehow ends up making his way to Nairobi, becoming a pick pocket and everything else follows.

With all the information that is available on Kiriamiti, it would have been incredible to see those books made into a big budget movie production and watch how Jack Zollo evolved from a small time pick pocket to Kenya’s “Most wanted criminal”.

Wouldn’t it have been nice to see whether Millie, a nun gone rogue, knew Zollo was a criminal and whether she was blind to it all?

COMING SOON

In 2011, Kenyadian, a Kenyan-Canadian company wanted to do just that, it announced that it had secured the rights to Kiriamiti’s books and had already began penning the screen play adaptation. The director, Neil Schell who is also helping to produce the movie, commissioned Serah Mwihaki to write the screen play.

The company had secured the rights for seven years and was to be released in September 2012.

The production company got a contract for one movie for all the three books.

Everything seemed to be going in the right direction but fast forward to 2014, and nothing tangible had been realised. Instead, the internet was abuzz with angered fans who were peeved over the choice of the lead character, a Nigerian actor by the name Jim Iyke.

Kiriamiti was also not too pleased by the actor they chose and advised Iyke to stop talking like an American.

“We have very good actors in Kenya who can relate better to that period in my life. Jim Iyke promised me that he would do his best but I feel that he cannot,” he says.

Given a choice, Kiriamiti would much rather prefer the “young man in 'Nairobi Half Life'”, Joseph Wairimu whom he admired a lot in the movie and could probably pull off playing the character Jack Zollo. He says the movie was almost similar to his own real life experience.

Kiriamiti had done his homework on his fans, he further told Iyke; “Whoever has read the book has told me they read it three or four times and as you know in the book I wasn’t acting, I was doing it for real. I hope that translates in the movie.”

The excitement of anxiously waiting to see Kiriamiti’s masterpiece of a book and real life adventures come to life on the big screen has since died down, a disappointment for the fans of his books.

Although things have somewhat slowed down in the production process, Kiriamiti is quite optimistic that things will get back on track because he is impressed with the job that the production company is doing.

“They have not yet updated me on the progress in making the movie but they have so far given me part of my royalties. But I’m happy with the job they are doing,” he says.

Actress Janet Kirina, who is also producing the movie with Neil Schell says that everything is still in the works but she can’t reveal any details.

Adapting books into movies is an art form that dates back as early as 1896. Centuries later, making films based on books is still a concept that filmmakers in Kenya working together with writers are yet to see come to life.

ACROSS THE BRIDGE

There are many other criminals that would get people to flock the cinemas like the trio of Wanugu, Wacucu and Rasta. There was also Matheri, Shimoli, Cheruiyot among others. But crime is not the only minefield for film producers.

Since the 1950’s, Kenya has had some of the best writers in the world. Some of their literary works have also been turned into high school literature set books like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s The River Between and Dr. Margaret Ogolla’s The River and The Source.

Although the scope of best-selling writers is not that wide in Kenya, filmmakers could borrow the works of the few there are like Son of Woman by Charles Mangua, Land Without Thunder by Grace Ogot, From Charcoal to Gold written by the late Njenga Karume, Going Down River Road by the celebrated urban writer Meja Mwangi and After 4.30 by David Mailu.

The late Mwangi Gicheru, author of the highly acclaimed book Across the Bridge wanted to turn the book into a movie before he died, reveals Kiriamiti.

“I was willing to assist him but unfortunately he died before those plans were realised. He wanted to shoot and finance the movie himself, and I think it would have been a great success because the book was very interesting,” says Kiriamiti.

Turning a book into a movie is a serious business that requires both a lot of time and careful consideration before audiences walk into a theatre to see it. But film director Bob Nyanja says that the factor that hinders the adaptation of books into movies is that Kenyans do not have the money to watch films in cinemas, hence the large number of people that consume bootleg movies from movie vendors.

He also says that merging the two media is a task that has to be carefully considered, the pros and cons weighed keeping in mind that books have the luxury of time while movies only have a specific duration of time in which to tell the story.

“These two have to be managed carefully because you have to find a way to best capture the audience’s imagination without straying away from the theme of the book. You have to capture the characters in narration the way the audience imagines how they talk, dress and look like,” says Nyanja.

TALENT POOL

David Tosh Gitonga the director of the award winning crime thriller Nairobi Half Life says that adapting books into movies is one of the best business modules because if it works, then the rest will fall into place.

However, he says that the movie industry in Kenya is very young and the pool of Kenyan authors is not that big and the major setback is funds.

“People have an appetite for films made in a level they can consume like Hollywood, but it costs a lot and it is very hard for someone to invest their money. But that aside, the access to these movies and distribution is lacking,” he says

Gitonga says that there are few movie cinemas and if there were more that are accessible and affordable to people of all demographics, then more people would go to the movies.

There are a lot of books being turned into movies, at least on the Hollywood scale, and it is only a matter of time before Kenya latches on to that bandwagon where Kenyan stories will have a bigger and perhaps an international platform to be seen and heard.