Neon Takes on ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ with a Fresh Spin in ‘Clarissa’ Featuring Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, India Amarteifio, Ayo Edebiri, and Toheeb Jimoh
Neon has acquired worldwide distribution rights for Clarissa, a contemporary reinterpretation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, featuring a prominent cast that includes Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, India Amarteifio, Ayo Edebiri, and Toheeb Jimoh.
The film was shot on 35mm film in Nigeria, directed by twin filmmakers Arie and Chuko Esiri. Neon will oversee its U.S. release, while Neon International will manage foreign sales.
Clarissa centers around a society woman, played by Okonedo, who is preparing to host a party at her Lagos home. As former friends from her youth converge, they reflect on their deeply intertwined pasts over the course of one night, uncovering layers of complex relationships, romantic yearnings, and unfulfilled dreams.
Chuko Esiri is responsible for the screenplay and serves as a producer alongside Arie Esiri, Theresa Park from Per Capita Productions, and Nicholas Weinstock from Invention Studios. Co-producers include Nina Gold and Thomas Bassett, while the executive production team features Okonedo, Dolly Omodolapo Kola-Balogun, Osahon Okunbo, and Jason Reif. Financing for the production was fully sourced from Afreximbank Creative Africa Nexus and MBO Capital.
The Esiri brothers, originally from Warri, Nigeria, and raised in Lagos, are fresh off their debut feature Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won five African Movie Academy Awards. That film was released by Janus Films and is now included in the Criterion Collection.
Currently, Neon holds 18 Academy Award nominations, making it the studio with the second-most nominations this season. Its Oscar contenders include Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident, Sirāt, and Arco. The company is also set to release Sirāt in New York and Los Angeles today, with future titles including Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert and Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters, slated to debut at SXSW.
Kate Gondwe, Neon’s Director of Acquisitions, Development & Production, handled the deal for Clarissa, while UTA Independent Film Group represented the filmmakers.
