David Oyelowo is to star in an adaptation of Another Day in the Death of America, the forthcoming book by Guardian journalist Gary Younge.

The drama focuses on the escalating issue of gun violence in the US and the events of one day: 23 November 2013. It was a day that saw 10 children shot dead yet none of the deaths made national news.

“Every day in the US seven children and teens are killed by guns,” said a spokesperson for the book’s publisher Guardian Faber. “Gary Younge picked a day at random and spent 18 months exploring the lives and deaths of all the youngsters who were shot dead that day. What emerges is a sobering - and searing - portrait of a normal day in contemporary America.”

The book and film won’t focus on how the children died but rather how they lived their lives until that tragic day. The victims’ ages range from nine to 19.

It’s one of many new projects for Oyelowo who was most recently seen in the fact-based thriller Captive. He will next appear in romantic drama A United Kingdom opposite Rosamund Pike, and Queen of Katwe with Lupita Nyong’o. He also recently signed on for a thriller, God Particle, with Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

In 2015, Younge was awarded the David Nyhan prize for political journalism by Harvard University. His book will be published on 29 September in the UK and on 4 October in the US.