Netflix Nabs Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Directorial Debut “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind’

Deadline

By Andreas Wiseman

November 14, 2018

Netflix has picked up global rights (excluding Japan, China and UK free TV rights) to Chiwetel Ejiofor’s (12 Year’s A Slave) directorial debut The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

Ejiofor scripted the British film, which is based on the book of the same name by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. Maxwell Simba stars with Ejiofor in the Malawi-shot story about a boy who can’t afford to go to school but dreams of building a windmill to save his village from famine.

Potboiler’s Andrea Calderwood and Gail Egan produce; executive producers including Joe Oppenheimer, Rose Garnett, Natascha Wharton, Jeff Skoll, Jonathan King, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Peter Hampden and Norman Merry.

The film will launch in 2019 on Netflix and in select cinemas in the U.S. and UK. Backing came from BFI and BBC Films with Head Gear, Metrol Technology and LipSync, in partnership with Participant Media. Cornerstone was the international sales agent. Read more.