Bet You Didn’t Know: Secrets Behind The Making of “Akeelah and the Bee”
- By
Veronica Wells
Spellbound
It took Atchison so long to secure funding for his film, pictures that were startlingly similar came out before Akeelah. In 2002, a documentary featuring a black girl named Ashley White from Washington D.C. competing for a spelling bee title was released. While this might seem like this would have discouraged funders from producing Atchison’s movie, producers believe the success of these films helped push his film to theaters. The nation became so interested in Spelling Bees that the Scripps National Competition was aired on live television in 2006.
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