{"id":172294,"date":"2026-03-23T16:34:44","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:34:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172294\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T16:34:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T16:34:44","slug":"warrior-queen-boarded-by-august-media-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/172294\/","title":{"rendered":"Warrior Queen’ Boarded by August Media Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSingapore\u2019s August Media Group<\/a> has boarded upcoming animated feature film\u00a0\u201cMalika: Warrior Queen\u201d from U.S.-based Nigerian author and director Roye Okupe<\/a>, creator of hit animated superhero series \u201cIyanu<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAugust Media \u2014 producers of \u201cGeorge of the Jungle\u201d and Netflix\u2019s \u201cDino Girl Gauko,\u201d among other top kids animation titles \u2014 have agreed to finance up to a third of the production and marketing costs of the anime-inspired \u201cMalika,\u201d which reimagines 15th century West Africa through the rhythm of Afrobeats.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe prominent Southeast Asian group will also oversee the animation production for \u201cMalika\u201d with a team of studios and artists from across Asia \u201cwho will bring Okupe\u2019s Afro-Anime visual storytelling to life,\u201d according to a joint statement.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMalika: Warrior Queen\u201d is an adaptation of the eponymous graphic novel by Okupe about queen and military commander Malika, \u201cwho struggles to keep the peace in her ever-expanding empire,\u201d as the film\u2019s synopsis puts it. \u201cGrowing up as a prodigy, Malika inherited the crown from her father in the most unusual of circumstances, splitting the Kingdom of Azzaz in half. After years of civil war, Malika was able to unite all of Azzaz, expanding it into one of the largest empires in all of West Africa,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feature, which is set to mark Okupe\u2019s leap into big-screen fare, is being produced by Okupe\u2019s YouNeek Studios in partnership with former Dreamworks executive Doug Schwalbe and other partners, with August Media now boarding as co-producer.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkupe\u2019s \u201cIyanu,\u201d which is set in a world rooted in Nigerian mythology, ranks as the No. 1 series among kids 2-12 on Cartoon Network and is a top 10 kids and family series on HBO Max. Produced by Lion Forge Entertainment and adapted from Okupe\u2019s graphic novels, it is also the top kids\u2019 show on the Showmax streamer, which operates in 44 African countries.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRoye Okupe\u2019s vision for \u2018Malika: Warrior Queen\u2019 pushes the boundaries of what Afro-Anime can be on the big screen,\u201d said August Media Group founder and CEO Jyotirmoy Saha, who will serve as EP for the feature, in a statement. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe are excited to bring together some of the most talented anime animation studios in Asia to help realize that vision,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\n\tCommented Okupe: \u201cMoy\u2019s ability to attract gifted studios and artists through Asia to work on this film adds an exciting new dimension to the visual storytelling we are looking to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is the international financing arrangement that springs out of the creative marriage of Anime from Asia with Roye\u2019s unique vision,\u201d noted Schwalbe, who is producing \u201cMalika\u201d under his DS Films banner alongside Emmy-winning producer Randy Dormans (\u201cKung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singapore\u2019s August Media Group has boarded upcoming animated feature film\u00a0\u201cMalika: Warrior Queen\u201d from U.S.-based Nigerian author and director…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[70310,4218,9,24,63,122,124,123,4219],"class_list":["post-172294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-august-media-group","tag-iyanu","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-roye-okupe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}