Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor's directorial debut, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, has started production in Malawi, Deadline reported, adding that Ejiofor "will star in the project he also adapted from the book written by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer."
Potboiler Productions' Andrea Calderwood (The Last King of Scotland) and Gail Egan (A Most Wanted Man) are producing the film. Participant's Jeff Skoll and Jonathan King will executive produce with BBC Films' Joe Oppenheimer, the BFI's Natascha Wharton and authors Kamkwamba and Mealer.
In addition to Ejiofor, the cast features Maxwell Simba, Lily Banda, Noma Dumezweni, (Hermione in U.K. stage production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Aissa Maiga (Anything for Alice), Joseph Marcell (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) and Lemogang Tsipa (Eye in the Sky).