Academy Award winner Daniel Kaluuya today revealed on Instagram that his next endeavor will see him serving as co-writer/producer of the future dystopian drama, The Kitchen for Netflix alongside Joe Murtagh (Calm with Horses, “Gangs of London”) from an original idea created by Daniel Kaluuya, Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Emmerson (Calm with Horses).
The Kitchen was selected for the Sundance Screenwriting and Directing Lab back in 2016 and is now being developed with the support of Film4 for whom David Kimbangi and Ollie Madden serve as executive producers.
Helmed by first-time feature director, Kibwe Tavares (previously awarded the Sundance Special Jury Award for his animated short Robots of Brixton and nominated for the Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize for Jonah), The Kitchen is set in London, 2044, a future where the gap between rich and poor has been stretched to its limits. All forms of social housing have been eradicated and London’s working classes have been forced to live in temporary accommodation on the outskirts of the city, The Kitchen is the first and the largest of its kind, it’s London’s last village harboring residents that refuse to move on and move out of the place they call home. It’s here we meet Izi (actor and musician Kane Robinson – “Top Boy”), a resident of the kitchen who is desperately trying to find a way out and 12-year-old, Benji (newcomer Jedaiah Bannerman), who has lost his mother and is searching for a family. We follow our unlikely pair as they battle to survive in a system that is stacked against them.
Commenting on the news, Daniel Kaluuya said, “In 2011, I was in my barbershop and there was a guy boasting about smash and grabs – kids doing million-pound heists in a minute, getting paid £200 to do it. I saw the potential to unlock a unique story door to the inequality, fatherhood, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance, and care of London. Now, nearly a decade later, Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Emmerson and I are about to start production, immersing ourselves in a dystopian London that interrogates what ‘care’ means, at home and as a society and the dangers in our future if we stay indifferent to everything around us. I feel blessed and honored that my first co-writing film credit is with this inspiring group of creatives, and with the support of Film4 and Netflix. All of us are excited to watch Kibwe’s incredible, cinematic, electric vision come to life, and to create a moment that audiences want to take with them.”
Tavares added, “The Kitchen is very much a love letter to London, the city that has defined my childhood and ultimately my identity. It’s set in an extreme version of our current world; our characters have little choice but to let the city take over them. Through Benji, a 12-year-old in need of care, we explore what we as a society lose in the ever-changing and shifting patterns of life, of our cities. This is a film for all the communities out there that are trying to take care of each other.”
The Kitchen will shoot on location in London and Paris and is slated for a 2023 global release on Netflix.
