They’re already attached to share the screen in indie drama **Americanah, but it looks like David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o will be teaming up sooner than that, as they’re both in talks for Mira Nair’s new film **Queen Of Katwe.
Disney has Nair set to re-team with** Reluctant Fundamentalist** writer William Wheeler for the film, which will take as its source Tim Crothers’ 2011 ESPN magazine article/book The Queen Of Katwe: A Story Of Life, Chess, And One Extraordinary Girl’s Dream Of Becoming A Grandmaster. It’ll follow Phiona Mutesi a young woman from the slums of Uganda who was spotted by coach Robert Katende and reached the World Chess Olympiad with his support.
If they both sign on, Oyelowo will be playing Katende, while Nyong’o would be Harriet Mutesi, Phiona’s mother. The Mouse House is hoping to have this one shooting in the spring.
Oyelowo is receiving plenty of awards attention for his role as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (arriving here on February 6), and will next be seen in J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, due on January 23. Nyong’o is voicing Rakcha in Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (out on October 16) and has a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is set for release on December 18.