The first trailer for Barry Jenkins’ “Mufasa: The Lion King” was released online yesterday, but when Jenkins took to social media to share the teaser, he was met with criticism from a few of his fans.
I’ve already tackled how, after directing acclaimed arthouse films such as “Moonlight,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” it’s quite strange to see Jenkins embarking on a mainstream Disney prequel. The terms “soulless cash grab” and "sold out" were sent over to Jenkins yesterday on X.
One fan told the filmmaker that he was "too good and talented for [Bob] Iger's soulless machine," while another person — who claimed to have interviewed him when “Moonlight” came out — complained, “You can do a Disney movie for the check, in order to work on your passion projects at a later time, but you don’t have to shill like this.”
Jenkins responded to both …
Who are we to judge without having seen ‘Mufasa’? All I know is that Jenkins probably got a big fat paycheck to hop on-board this film. I’m more than open to his interpretation of the popular franchise, but it’s also fine to have some doubts about the whole thing. After all, Disney is prone to control any filmmaker who directs one of their films, and I doubt it was any different in this instance.
Maybe Jenkins signing on to the prequel of a movie that made $1 billion will help him fund more personal projects. It’s as simple as that. However, one must ask, would, for example, David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel Coen, Wes Anderson, or Quentin Tarantino ever sign on to direct “Mufasa: The Lion King”? Of course not. Different times, I guess — the industry has changed.