Tomi Adeyemi

That's when...

You know, like Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone came to from Pitch Wars.

And it was just like that was the buzzy thing to be a part of.

And then when you see all of like your friends from it and getting agents and book deals, it hasn't happened for you yet.

It's, it's unacceptable.

Tomi, oh, Tomi Adeyemi, my good sister.

So Tomi Adeyemi is a Nigerian American who wrote the books that it's based on.

So initially when this, um, cast started being announced and the film promo began about a year ago, she went online and she announced that casting was starting and they were going to cast from all over the world, and how excited she was for them to cast people in America, in Europe, in and on the continent.

Soon after, they started announcing the cast of the film, and in fact, it was almost entirely British and American actors, including specifically British and American actors that had worked with the director, um, Gina, in the past, which kind of suggested-

...

they speak on each other and how they handle their stories.

I want to go back to the Tomi Adeyemi point.

And that book was produced at Dion Audio with an engineer, I had no director, and there was no help as far as the language.

Tomi Adeyemi, the author, she picked up a lot of stuff in Brazil, and her parents are Nigerian, but she doesn't speak Yoruba.

And we didn't know how to, there were songs and incantations.

Right.

And allow me to also state that this is common when a writer is on set and he's not the director or she's not the director.

Look at what's happening with Tomi Adeyemi.

When the writer is on set, you really have to put your writer on check.

Like every disagreement with the writer or difference in views with the writer has to be settled before you come on.

Authors complain is practically a tradition at this point.

An author sells the rights.

The studio inevitably changes the ending for mass appeal.

The author's dissent was a delayed reaction, you know, a piece of trivia for film historians, not a tangible threat to the opening weekend box office.

But today, that monopoly is gone.

Authors are no longer reliant on the studio's PR apparatus because they're their own independent media networks.

Right.

Tomi Adeyemi's TikTok account is a broadcast tower with a direct algorithmic feed right into the pockets of the exact demographic.

This is another title coming out this month that will make a great read for the upcoming Halloween season.

And last, but absolutely not least, we have The Siren by Tomi Adeyemi.

Tomi has been mentioned a lot in the last couple of months, but unfortunately most of those mentions have nothing to do with this upcoming novel.

a total departure from her wildly popular Children of Blood and Bone trilogy, The Siren is a contemporary dark academic thriller about power, rage, longing, and what happens when wanting to belong becomes dangerous.

It's this pinnacle of creator control that most novelists literally only dream of.

So why did Tomi Adeyemi get exactly that, walk onto the set of her own meticulously crafted universe, and then publicly declare she will never, ever watch the finished movie?

Yeah, it completely inverts the standard narrative of how these massive IP adaptations are supposed to work.

Usually when a creator is unhappy, it's because they were locked out of the room, they sold the rights, they took the check, and the studio just mandated a bunch of changes behind closed doors.

the co-writer's boycott.

This is the centerpiece of the drama.

Tomi Adeyemi, the author of the book, is officially credited as the co-writer of the screenplay alongside director Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Which is a huge deal.

...

but I've been waiting too long for a movie like this, and Tomi would've had something to say extremely serious to keep me from it."

Yeah.

And I think that's the other part of it, like we're waiting to see because she's saying, you know, "Go see it.

Uh-huh.

[laughs]

Oh, Tomi.

And watch meanwhile she got six people twisting her hair up at the same time.