Barry Jenkins explains shocking reason behind ‘Mufasa: The Lion King’

Barry Jenkins, a renowned filmmaker, recently expressed his thoughts regarding the approach of CGI filmmaking.

Jenkins is not excited to use the CGI technology for his upcoming Mufasa: The Lion King, as he said in an interview with Vulture, “When I took this job, the idea was, ‘What does Barry Jenkins know about visual effects? Why the hell would he do this movie?’”

He was also aware that people would enquire, “Why would he be making The Lion King?”

The director of Moonlight went on to quip, “I think part of that I found very invigorating. People make these things, you know, with computers. So anybody should be able to do this. Anybody, right? There’s nothing physically that says I am incapable of doing this.”

Jenkins confessed that he took the job as “work for hire,” partly because he wanted steady work in Los Angeles for three years, where he lives with his wife, the Farewell filmmaker Lulu Wang.

“I needed to slow… the f***** down,” the 45-year-old director mentioned, adding that he and his wife were often rushed to different cities for their jobs.

Moreover, Jenkins admitted this week that he almost turned down the project.

When he received the script by Disney for the first time, his thoughts were, “Oh, I’ll just give this a few days, and I’ll call my agent and tell them I’ve read it, and I’m not going to do this project.”

Moving forward, the Aftersun creator with his wife went on a vacation, and the project had slipped his mind.

However, upon his return, Jenkins remembered the project, saying, “OK, shit, that’s right! I have to call my agents tomorrow and remind them that I’m not going to do this project.”

Then, his wife asked, “Are you afraid to read it?”

He told himself he would read five pages of the script but ended up reading 50.

“I turn to Lulu and go, ‘Holy shit, this is good,’” Jenkins concluded by reflecting.

It is pertinent to mention that Mufasa: The Lion King, set for release on December 20, is a follow-up to the 2019 The Lion King, a “live action” remake of Disney’s 1994 animated film.

Like the first film, Mufasa is entirely CGI and uses photorealistic animation to bring the safari animals to life.