Pakistan’s youngest Nobel Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai is all set to produce Hollywood films after signing a three-film deal with Apple Inc, Variety magazine has revealed.
Yousafzai is among creative leaders honoured for Variety’s 2022 Power of Women presented by Lifetime.
Her production company Extracurricular has partnered with the indie studio A24 for a still-untitled feature documentary on the legendary “Haenyeo” society of fisherwomen, who live on South Korea’s Jeju Island.
The second project is a scripted series based on Asha Lemmie’s coming-of-age novel “Fifty Words for Rain,” about a woman’s search for acceptance in post-World War II Japan
The third is a feature film with “Don’t Look Up” director Adam McKay, based on Elaine Hsieh Chou’s book “Disorientation” — a satire about a college student’s revealing dissertation about a young poet.
“What I hope to bring to the table are the voices of women of color and debut writers and Muslim directors and writers. I hope we can have a wide range of perspectives and that we challenge some of the stereotypes we hold in our societies. And I also hope that the content is entertaining and that people fall in love with the characters and have the best time together,” she said.
She told the magazine that she has watched ‘Succession,’ ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Severance,’ and pointed out that in those shows there were a lot of white men.
“If we can watch those shows, then I think audiences should be able to watch shows that are made by people of colour, and produced and directed by people of colour, with people of colour in the lead. That is possible, and I’m gonna make it happen,” she avowed.
Malala disclosed that her favourite TV shows include adult animated sitcom “Rick and Morty” and Netflix comedy “Sex Education”.
Talking to the magazine, Yousafzai said that she doesn’t want to get into British politics.
“This activism for girls’ education and gender equality is already a form of getting involved in politics. So I’m not sure if I’ll become the prime minister of a country.” Still, she adds, “We’ll see in the future”. After a beat, she said mischievously, “Maybe that is also a political answer”.
