‘This Is Us’ Producer Kay Oyegun To Adapt Angie Thomas’ Book ‘On the Come Up’ For Paramount

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EXCLUSIVE: Kay Oyegun, who currently serves as a producer and writer on NBC’s hit drama series, This Is Us, has been tapped to write the screenplay for the film adaptation of On the Come Up, the young adult novel by The Hate U Give author Angie Thomas.

The project, originally set at Fox 2000 who released 2018’s The Hate U Give film starring Amandla Stenberg, moved to Paramount Players earlier this year after the Fox division was shuttered when Disney took over.

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Set in the same universe as its predecessor, On the Come Up focuses on Bri, a young rapper and the daughter of an underground hip hop legend who died just before making it big. Her father’s legend makes him a hard act to follow, but between Bri being bullied and watching her mother struggle after losing her job, she pours out her frustration into songs that become big viral hits.

George Tillman Jr. will direct the follow-up which is a co-production between Temple Hill and State Street Pictures. Thomas is producing the film alongside Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner and John Fischer of Temple Hill as well as Robert Teitel, Tillman and Jay Marcus from State Street.

This has been a banner year for Oyegun. The Nigerian-American writer-producer, who has worked on This Is Us since its onset, recently signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox TV, the studio behind series. On the film side, Oyegun was tasked to script the Rick Famuyiwa-direction adaptation of the epic fantasy novel Children of Blood and Bone, written by Tomi Adeyemi. In addition, Paramount Pictures nabbed Oyegun’s script, Assisted Living, for what was said to be a high six against a seven-figure deal.

Oyegun is repped by Underground and lawyer Allison Binder.

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