British rapper and actor Kane “Kano” Robinson secured a leading role in the new Netflix film The Kitchen.
Robinson, who plays Sully in the Netflix hit series Top Boy, will star as Izi in the streaming platform’s latest project, Deadline reported.
The dystopian thriller takes place in London, 2044, where the socioeconomic differences between the rich and poor have caused social injustice in a post-apocalyptic era. As a result, all forms of social housing have been eliminated. Instead, London’s working classes have been forced to live in temporary accommodation in the city’s suburban areas.
Robinson’s character, Izi, is a city resident who desperately tries to find ways out of the city’s ongoing destruction. He meets 12-year-old Benji, who lost his mother and searches for a new family during their journey towards survival.
The UK-based film was created, co-written, and co-produced by Black Panther star Daniel Kaluuya.
British filmmaker Kibwe Tavares will make his directing debut in the new project. His previous work includes the animated short Robots of Brixton, for which he won a Sundance Jury Award for his production in the film. Tavares’ was also nominated for a Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize for Jonah, starring Kaluuya.
Kaluuya produced the film alongside Daniel Emmerson for DMC Film (Calm With Horses), which partnered with the British native’s production company, 59 productions.
During an interview with GQ, Kaluuya revealed that he came up with the movie idea based on a conversation he had a few years ago in a London barbershop.
“In 2011, I was in my barbershop, and there was a guy boasting about smash and grabs — kids doing million-pound heists in a minute, getting paid £200 to do it. I saw the potential to unlock a unique story door to the inequality, fatherhood, class, joy, resilience, courage, defiance, and care of London,” Kaluuya explained. “Now, nearly a decade later, Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Emmerson, and I are about to start production, immersing ourselves in a dystopian London that interrogates what ‘care’ means, at home and as a society and the dangers in our future if we stay indifferent to everything around us.”
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The film will start shooting in London and Paris. Netflix plans to release The Kitchen sometime in 2023.
Before his acting career began, Robinson started making music in the mid-2000s, becoming one of the most talented MCs in the industry. According to his Spotify biography, The 36-year-old artist maintains an articulate, rhythmic style with a mixture of U.K. pirate radio and American rap while elevating his tone between serious and light-hearted lyrics. Since then, he has released several mixtapes and independent albums.
