‘Children of Blood and Bone’: When a film adaptation goes awry
By Benneth Nwankwo
What really happened?
One of the most shocking pieces of film news to come out in the past few hours is Nigerian Tomi Adeyemi, author of Children of Blood and Bone, saying she will not be watching the film adaptation of her own book. Many people thought it was a joke until she shared the screenshots herself.
Adeyemi co-wrote the screenplay and is credited as executive producer on the film, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood for Paramount, set to release in January 2027. Despite that, she posted on TikTok that there is a reason she has not spoken about the adaptation, and that reason is that she has not seen the finished film and does not intend to.
She went further.
She shared a screenshot of a message she sent, telling someone not to use her name in any interview or video again, not to text her, and not to call her. Reports say the person she blocked afterward was Amandla Stenberg, one of the stars of the film.
She also told fans that going forward, the way to support her is to buy her books from an independent bookstore and not to follow the movie.
Her exact words were that it has been painful holding this back, and that she is officially separating her name from the project because she cannot keep being hurt behind the scenes.
Now, many people are asking what really happened. Some are calling it a publicity stunt.
I do not think so, and this is my theory. When a book is adapted into a film, I have said this before, the final film is almost never exactly how the book was written. When a writer signs on to an adaptation deal, that contract rarely spells out every detail of how the story will be changed, cut, or rearranged in the final script. What I believe happened here is that Adeyemi, having seen the direction the production was taking, was not happy with certain rewrites or adjustments.
It looks like she felt the story was losing its original touch, especially given the criticism around casting choices for a story rooted in Nigerian and West African culture.
She likely tried to push back and get those changes reversed. Having failed at that, she has now chosen to distance herself completely rather than continue fighting quietly behind the scenes.
That is my opinion.
It could be something deeper, maybe financial, though I doubt that is the main driver here. Creative control seems to be the real issue. Paramount and others involved in the production have not responded publicly. But this is what it means for the film.
When the person who wrote the original story publicly refuses to watch it and tells people not to associate her name with it, that is a direct hit on the commercial value of the film.
Fans who follow Adeyemi because of her voice and her vision may now think twice about supporting a film she herself has stepped away from.
That is a lot of controversy. I do not know what step the production will take from here. Whether they respond with a legal position, an official statement, or simply stay quiet and let it blow over, only time will tell.
But in all, this is not good news for the movie.
* Nwankwo is a Nigerian documentary photographer and film director
