A Chatham-Kent author's upcoming book has been picked up by Netflix for a new series.
Craig Shreve, who was born and raised in North Buxton, will see his new book African Samurai come to life in a five-part live-action series titled Yasuke.
The project is currently in development and has not yet received a series green light, but Shreve said the production company and Netflix are both on board.
"The executives from 21 Laps, the production company behind Stranger Things, reached out to us back in November of last year," said Shreve. "We talked about the story and how it could be translated to screen. We were all on the same page with things."
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lupin star Omar Sy is in talks to play the real-life samurai, an African man brought to feudal Japan under enslavement who became the country’s first non-Japanese samurai.
"I think this will help open some doors, particularly in the U.S.," said Shreve. "The book already has a Canadian publisher, Simon & Schuster, but now we can shop it around and find a U.S. publisher as well. Being able to say it's going to be the basis of a Netflix series certainly puts a lot of punch behind it."
Shreve knew the story had the potential to be translated into film or television, but he said he didn't expect it to happen so quickly. The book will be credited and used as source material for the new series.
"I'm not necessarily surprised, but I am certainly surprised in how quickly it got picked up," said Shreve. "I'm sure it will differ from the book, but I think it will mostly follow the same path based on conversations had so far."
Shreve first came across the story of Yasuke on a very short YouTube video. At first, he didn't expect it to be true. But, once he began to dig into the research, he realized there was a lot more to the story.
"I spent probably about two years researching, and then I started writing in August of 2020," said Shreve. "With the research behind me, the writing went pretty quickly. I had the draft ready by December of that year."
Growing up in historic North Buxton inspired Shreve to contribute something the community could be proud of.
"I have been around history all of my life and have been around some people who have been successful in writing about history," said Shreve. "I did have some people I could look to for inspiration."
The novel African Samurai will be available on August 1, 2023.
