(Hollywood Reporter) – Amma Asante has come aboard to direct A United Kingdom, a racial drama that has David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in negotiations to star.
Pathe International is financing and is one of the production companies behind the project, which is eyeing an October start.
Written by Guy Hibbert, the script tells the true story of Seretse Khama, a member of the royal family in the country of Bechuanaland, a former English colony and south African nation that would one day become Botswana, with Khama serving as the country’s first president. But prior to that, Khama sparked international outrage when he married a white woman in 1948. He survived a deposition attempt by his uncle, only to face opposition from South Africa, where interracial marriage was illegal, which forced Great Britain to ban him from his home country in 1951.