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Nikita Pearl Waligwa, an actress who starred in the 2016 Walt Disney film Queen of Katwe, has died. She had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, according to Ugandan media. The film was about a chess prodigy rising from a Ugandan slum and was based on the true story of Phiona Mutesi. She began playing chess at age nine…

So far at the fall domestic box office we’ve seen a slew of misfires out of the gate including Blair Witch, Bridget Jones’s Baby, Snowden, The Light Between Oceans, Morgan, The Disappointments Room and The Wild Life. Even though some wide product has moved off the fall schedule, it’s still a vicious…

Just in time for the debate, Cinema Libre opened The Best Democracy Money Can Buy in an exclusive engagement over the weekend, grossing $10K. Also in a single location, Long Shot Factory bowed doc Generation Startup taking in over $6K. Disney doesn't usually hit this column, but the studio went for limited runs for Que…

In Disney’s earnest and lovely Queen Of Katwe, 10-year-old Phiona Mutesi sells corn on the streets of her impoverished Ugandan neighborhood of Katwe in Kampala. Her mother Harriet sells vegetables, trying to make a decent enough living to bring up her kids, but when Phiona discovers a strong aptitude for the game of…

After box office forecasts were off wildly last weekend, bringing 2016 ticket sales to a three-day low of $88.6M, there’s a once-burned/twice-learned feeling among distribution executives heading into this Friday as September’s second-biggest title after Sully, Sony/MGM’s The Magnificent Seven, hits theaters. Some…

If Friday was a day for films with downer and somewhat depressing subject matter at the Toronto International Film Festival, Saturday was a whole different thing, with Fox bringing a sneak peak along with a Pharrell Williams concert for Hidden Figures, Disney making their Fall season chess moves with Queen Of…

When Mira Nair's Queen Of Katwe, about the Ugandan child chess phenom Phiona Mutesi, has its gala world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 10, some viewers in the spacious Roy Thomson Hall might be in for a surprise: As it turns out, they will be watching a movie about a girl for whom love of chess was…

The BFI London Film Festival has set the European premiere of Queen Of Katwe for October 9 at the Odeon Leicester Square. The drama will screen as part of the fest’s headline gala section. David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong'o and newcomer Madina Nalwanga star in the film from director Mira Nair. Queen Of Katwe is the true…

Tendo Nagenda, a Walt Disney Studios live-action senior creative executive who oversaw Disney’s 2015 hit Cinderella, has been upped to EVP Production. In his former post since 2010, he shepherded a slate through development, production, physical production and post. Currently, Nagenda is the development exec on Queen O…

“Sometimes the place you are used to is not the place you belong. You belong where you believe you belong. Where is that for you?” That question is posed in Disney’s Mira Nair-directed Queen of Katwe. The film, adapted from the book by Tim Crothers with a screenplay by William Wheeler (The Hoax), tells the true story…

Disney has just put Mira Nair’s next picture Queen Of Katwe onto its release schedule, with a limited debut on September 23 and an expansion a week later. The film, which stars David Oyelowo (Selma), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) and newcomer Madina Nalwanga, is based on a true story. The film, adapted from the…

EXCLUSIVE: David Oyelowo and Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o are in negotiations to star in Queen Of Katwe, a pic based on the true story about the rise of a young African chess prodigy. Mira Nair is directing the pic in a reteam with her Reluctant Fundamentalist scribe William Wheeler, who penned the script. Disney is…