Despite early reviews for Disney’s latest “live-action” film, Mufasa: The Lion King, director Barry Jenkins seems to be stepping away from the project, telling interviewers CGI films are “Not my thing.”
“When I took this job, the idea was, ‘What does Barry Jenkins know about visual effects? Why the hell would he do this movie’” Jenkins said in an interview with Vulture. “I think part of that I found very refreshing. 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.”
However, after spending nearly four years on the project, the Moonlight director has a different perspective. “It is not my thing,” he said. “I want to work the other way again, where I want to get everything there physically. I always believed that what was here was enough, and let me figure out what the chemistry was to make alchemy. How can these people, this light, this environment, come together to create an image that is moving, beautiful, and creates a text that is deep enough, dense enough, rich enough to speak to someone?”
Jenkins confessed that he initially had no interest in the entirely CGI project. However, he was interested in the job security of a steady three-year film wholly made in Las Angeles, so he wouldn’t have to spend too much time away from his wife, fellow filmmaker Lulu Wang. The selling point for Jenkins, however, was the script. He said he would only read the first five pages but was captivated by the story.
Despite his conclusion that CGI directing is not for him, Jenkins breathes new light into the Lion King prequel. He emphasizes imperfection to help the film feel less contrived—a complaint many had about the first film. At one point, Jenkins urged animators to keep a scene that mistakenly looked as though the camera was dropped.
“We want just something that has texture, something that feels organic. And sometimes that can be the hardest thing to dial in because every single blade of grass has to be created by someone,” he said. “But you ultimately don’t want everything to feel like it’s been created by anyone. You want it to feel like it naturally arose.”
Though he likely won’t take on any similar projects, Jenkins is proud of the work he did on Mufasa, which will be released in theaters on December 20.
