Development

Tim Crothers wrote The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster, which chronicled Phiona Mutesi's life. Published by ESPN in 2012, it was optioned that same year by Walt Disney Pictures.^[11] Tendo Nagenda, Walt Disney Studios' senior creative executive, developed the project into production. He happens to be ethnic Ugandan.^[12] With executive approval from studio president Sean Bailey,^[13] Nagenda went to visit Mira Nair at her Ugandan home to recruit her to direct a film about Mutesi. Nair was captivated by the story, stating, "I have always been surrounded by these local stories but hadn’t done anything in Uganda since 1991. I love any story about people who make something from what appears to be nothing."^[14]

Mira Nair met with Mutesi, her mother Harriet, and the chess group run by coach Robert Katende. She invited screenwriter William Wheeler to come to Kampala to conduct interviews with the principal figures as a foundation for a screenplay.^[15] Nair filmed a high-concept short and presented it to Disney, to alleviate the studio's concerns about the film being entirely set in Africa.^[15]

Wheeler believed that the film could fit within the Disney tradition of films about "underdog" sports stories, noting that:

"we were trying to ... gently expand the idea of what a 'Disney film' could be. Disney was very open to wanting to tell an aspirational story about someone from someplace that is not at all familiar to Western audiences ... this could really fit into one of the things that they do very well – which is telling sports underdog stories and finding the ways the story naturally intersects with that genre of film."^[16]

Nair described Queen of Katwe as "a radical film for Disney in many ways.... It has beauty and barbarity side-by-side."^[13] In January 2015, Disney studio chairman Alan F. Horn greenlit the film into production for US$15 million.^[13]

Casting

In January 2015, David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o were cast as Robert Katende and Harriet Mutesi, respectively. They were Nair's first choices for the roles. Nyong'o said that she had decided to play the part after reading the script's first ten pages, saying "It was the first time I felt really awakened by a script and super challenged."^[17][18] Oyelowo immediately accepted the role, seeing the film as a "subversive work", given the lack of diversity in contemporary American cinema.^[19][20] Nair said that finding an actress to play Phiona was the most difficult. The casting search lasted from July to December 2014 and the production team auditioned nearly 700 girls.^[15] The casting director found Madina Nalwanga in a community dance class. The 15-year-old Ugandan dancer was cast as Phiona.^[5][21]

Filming

Principal photography began in April 2015.^[22][23] The film was shot in the Katwe slums in Kampala, Uganda and in Johannesburg, South Africa. More than one hundred Ugandans were hired as extras for the street scenes; eighty had no prior experience with cameras.^[24] Nair set up an acting boot camp to help prepare the children for their scenes.^[25] Most professional Ugandan actors settled for roles as extras, including Gladys Oyenbot who acted as Lupita's stand-in double.^[26]

Nair and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt used different visual approaches for the various matches which Mutesi plays. Katende, who was present at the shoot, designed the games, while Nair and Bobbitt worked on each shot. The chess scenes were complicated because the call sheet contained actual chess moves. Nair and editor Barry Brown cut the scenes to create some drama.^[24] Production wrapped in June 2015 after 54 days of shooting.^[2]

Music

The musical score for Queen of Katwe was composed by Alex Heffes.^[27] Heffes added that "It's a very thematic and gentle score that is more orchestral than something like Roots, although it's set in Africa [...] There are plenty of authentic Ugandan needle drop tracks in the film to set the scene so the score could concentrate more on the music story telling."^[28]

Alicia Keys wrote and recorded the song "Back to Life" for the film; it was released on September 9, 2016 by RCA Records.^[29] The official soundtrack album was released on September 23 by Walt Disney Records, with its deluxe edition also releasing the same day.^[30][31]

Box office

Queen of Katwe opened on September 23 as a limited release in the United States, with an estimated Friday total of $82,000 averaging $1,577 per screen across 52 selected theaters. By the opening weekend, it earned $304,933 averaging $5,864 per screen.^[42] It opened on wide release on September 30 to 1,242 screens, and went on to gross $2.5 million in the first week.^[43]

Critical response

Queen of Katwe received positive reviews from critics, with David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong'o's performances receiving unanimous praise.^[44][45] Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 94% based on 191 reviews and an average rating of 7.40/10. The website's critical consensus states: "Queen of Katwe is a feel-good movie of uncommon smarts and passion, and Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo's outstanding performances help elevate the film past its cliches."^[46] On Metacritic, the film has a normalized rating of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[47] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A+" on an A+ to F scale.^[42]

Accolades