The Edmonds' were able to negotiate with 20th Century Fox to underwrite the film for $6.5 million. In the beginning, 20th Century Fox wanted to have a more experienced director, but the studio changed their decision once they viewed some of Tillman's past work. In October 1996, the filming of "Soul Food" began to commence as Kenneth Edmonds served as the executive producer, and both Tracey Edmonds and Robert Teitel were the producers. Originally, 20th Century Fox would have wanted to have more pre-production work and start the actual filming sometime during 1997, but the leading actresses—Vivica A. Fox, Vanessa L. Williams, and Nia Long- had other obligations they had to attend to, which made them unavailable for the next year. Tracey Edmonds was concerned about not having the same cast, so the production settled on "a schedule to accommodate everybody. We had only 38 days to shoot the movie and could not go a day over that." Due to Tillman's persistence, "Soul Food"'s location took place in Chicago.