A movie adaptation of the 1990 one-act musical Once on This Island is in development at streaming service Disney+, according to the Hollywood Reporter, with American playwright Jocelyn Bioh and Kenyan director Wanuri Kahiu. No casting news or prospective release date was announced at this early stage.
The original stage production was based on Trinidadian-born author Rosa Guy’s 1985 novel, My Love, My Love: or The Peasant Girl, which Kirkus’ review described as a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid.”
Guy’s novel tells the story of Désirée, a poor orphan girl on a Caribbean island known as the Jewel of the Antilles. She discovers a wealthy “grand homme,” Daniel, who’s been injured in a car accident. She takes him to her home, where she takes care of him—and falls for him. But before he’s fully recovered, his father makes him return to his own home, far away. Désirée goes on a quest to find him, which she does, and she uses charms and potions to heal him—and, as a result, he falls in love with her; however, he’s already engaged to be married.
The musical version featured a book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and music by Stephen Flaherty; they later shared a Tony Award for Best Score for the 1996 musical Ragtime (itself based on the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow). Once on This Island changes the protagonist’s name to Ti Moune, and it foregrounds her community’s worship of Vodou gods, who play a large part in the story.
Kahiu won multiple Africa Movie Academy Awards for her 2008 film, From a Whisper, and is the author of the 2017 children’s book The Wooden Camel. According to the Hollywood Reporter, she’s also currently developing a feature-film version of Ali Benjamin’s 2015 Kirkus-starred middle-grade novel, The Thing About Jellyfish.
David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.
