Honey & Spice is being produced by Working Title, the British production company behind romance classics like the Bridget Jones film series, Notting Hill (1999), Love Actually (2003), and Pride and Prejudice (2005).
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
British-Nigerian author, journalist and screenwriter, Bolu Babalola, is set to make her debut as a feature film screenwriter with an adaptation of Honey & Spice, her bestselling debut novel published in 2022. The film is being produced by Working Title, the British production company behind romance classics like the Bridget Jones film series, Notting Hill (1999), Love Actually (2003), and Pride and Prejudice (2005).
Set in a fictional British university, Honey & Spice is a romantic comedy novel that follows Kiki Banjo, a student who hosts a radio show dedicated to advising black female students against relationships with “wastemen”. When Malakai Korede, whom Kiki quickly labels a wasteman, arrives on campus, she soon finds herself in an unexpected situation where she has to cook up a fake relationship with him, leading them from one end to the other of an enemies-to–lovers trope.
Described by Kirkus Reviews as “smooth, sophisticated, and sexy”, Honey & Spice won the Book of the Year prize at the inaugural BookTok Awards and made the Debut Fiction category of the Book of the Year shortlist at the 2023 British Book Awards.
Babalola gained popularity as an author with her debut short story collection, Love in Colour (2020), a bestseller which was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book of the Year. In 2021, she wrote and created Big Age, a television show about four young Black British friends juggling work, family, and romance. In July this year, she published her sophomore novel, Sweet Heat, the highly-anticipated sequel to Honey & Spice.
Speaking to Deadline about the adaptation, Babalola said, “Since Honey & Spice was published, I’ve been so appreciative of the incredible response from readers and the industry alike. As my debut novel, Kiki and Malakai’s story is so close to my heart, and I can’t wait to adapt their trials and tribulations in love for cinema audiences with the master of romantic films: Working Title.”
Cast and production details are unavailable at this time.