CJ Obasi has lined up his next feature.
Obasi will direct, produce and co-write The Boy Who Runs, a biopic charting the extraordinary life of Ugandan distance runner Julius Achon. He is co-writing the screenplay with Kirimi Kiage and Teddy Gitau. The film is being produced by Swiss-based studio 9 Nights in association with Obasi’s own Fiery Film production company, with Kudi Maradzika attached as executive producer and Mortinno Morton as co-producer.
Based on John Brant’s book The Boy Who Runs: The Odyssey of Julius Achon, the film traces Achon’s path from northern Uganda, where he was abducted as a child by the Lord’s Resistance Army, to his emergence as a national champion and NCAA athlete at George Mason University and eventually into the elite running world of Nike in Oregon. After his athletic career, Achon entered public life and currently serves as an elected Member of Parliament for Otuke County in northern Uganda.
Obasi’s last feature, Mami Wata, premiered at Sundance in 2023 before traveling the festival circuit. The black-and-white film served as Nigeria’s submission for Best International Feature Film at the 96th Academy Awards and earned Independent Spirit and NAACP Image Award nominations. He is currently in production on A Blue Butterfly, a psychological drama starring Steve Toussaint and Sanaa Lathan, with a cast that also includes Lucian Msamati, Anton Lesser, Eliane Umuhire, Andy Nyman and Aggy K. Adams.