Johannesburg - Sensational African stars Lupita Nyong’o and David Oyelowo are in town, dashing across Joburg in glorious fashion as they shoot the feature film Queen of Katwe, which is based on the story of Phiona Mutesi from the slum of Katwe, Uganda, who is on a quest to become a chess grandmaster.
Amid a closely guarded secret and tight security, the eminently fashionable Nyong’o and impressively august Oyelowo were shooting scenes using the dilapidated Holy Trinity School on Khoza Street in Atteridgeville’s famous ridged road outside Pretoria on Saturday and Sunday.
The Sunday Independent team, after cracking the secret of the pair’s arrival in the country on Thursday, spent five hours tracking down the location with the signs “QOK” – cryptic anagram for Queen of Katwe – snaking from William Nicol Drive in Fourways via old Gauteng routes to Khoza Street as though it was an Alice in Wonderland adventure.
Genevieve Hofmeyr, media spokeswoman for Moonlighting Films, which is shooting the film, could not be reached to confirm that the stars are in town. However, people on the set confirmed the presence of the stars, as did sources within the film industry.
“We’re shooting here today and tomorrow, then we hit it off again to somewhere else,” one of the personnel on set told The Sunday Independent.
Apparently the ravishing Nyong’o and fine Oyelowo were heavily guarded as they acted out their roles inside the hall.
Extras, all drawn locally, two of whom The Sunday Independent chanced upon, were able to snap cellphone images of Nyong’o and Oyelowo but refused to pass them on.
“They want extras of a dark complexion. You wouldn’t qualify as you’re not dark,” said the excited extras, who were within metres of Nyong’o and Oyelowo sharing the same humble ground of a run-down school in Atteridgeville.
Curiously, one tall male extra was dressed in a West African two-piece garb and a female extra was in common urban wear. Both said they were from the Pretoria suburb of Lotus Gardens, but would not give their names. The pair also seemed to confirm what security guards told The Sunday Independent that the stars were surrounded by tight security.
Just as it features local extras of a particular complexion, Queen of Katwe features South African artists, although their roles could not be confirmed.
A source within the film industry revealed that Nyong’o plays the love interest of the leading character who is the father of Mutesi, the extraordinary Ugandan chess player who has performed the mental feat of mastering chess despite perfunctory schooling, on whom the Queen of Katwe is based.
It would be odd, however, if Nyong’o were not to play Mutesi as there is such a strong resemblance between the two.
Seemingly Queen of Katwe is based on the book The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess and One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers.
The film rights to the book were originally acquired by Disney, which may mean Moonlighting Films production services is shooting for the charmed Hollywood studios.
There was an earlier shooting of Queen of Katwe in downtown Joburg last week, but the captivating presence of Nyong’o and Oyelowo didn’t seem to arouse the suspicions of passers-by.
The Sunday Independent