What Carey Fukunaga is filming - director of the next James Bond film

Carey Fukunagi has only a few famous works on his account, while his new series "Maniac" with Emma Stone and Jonah Hill becomes one of the main premieres of September. And then the director was put at the helm of the new "James Bond" instead of Danny Boyle, who left the project. What won the audience and critics by the man who relied on realism in his films?

No name

USA, Mexico, 2009.
Drama.
Duration: 96 minutes.
IMDb: 7, 6.

The plot tells about Willie - a young member of one of the most violent Mexican street gangs MS-13. After the death of his girlfriend, he tries to rob migrants on the train, but in the end he decides to help young Saira and her family, who are secretly trying to move to the United States. They need to cross the border unnoticed, but Willie is pursued by other members of his gang.

The very first full-length film by Carey Fukunagi immediately reveals the director's style and the basis of his work. He shot the picture according to his own script, and the experience of the operator allowed him to make the visual series vivid and exciting. But first of all, Fukunaga tries to show in a naturalistic way the very life of street gangs, where children are drawn from an early age, and no less vividly describes what difficulties those who try to escape from these monstrous conditions and move to the United States have to go through.

Spectators and critics appreciated the debut. The film was a success in competitive screenings and won two awards at the Sundance Festival. Journalists compared it with the works of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu and, after which the director opened up prospects for further creativity.

Jane Eyre

UK, USA, 2011.
Melodrama, drama.
Duration: 120 minutes.
IMDb: 7, 4.

The next full-length work of Fukunaga was the adaptation of the classic book by Charlotte Bronte "Jane Eyre". And then he had to make a lot of efforts to make the film look worthy against the background of numerous previous film incarnations. The story is exactly the same as in the book: a young girl from a poor family gets a job as a governess for the daughter of a wealthy Mr. Rochester. Later, feelings appear between her and the father of the family, but there are too many obstacles in the way of their happiness.

Fukunagi had some difficulties here. Fitting Brontë's imposing novel with multiple storylines into two hours has proven challenging. Therefore, to many fans of the book, the plot may seem a little ragged, and the story begins almost from the middle of the narrative. But the director chose excellent actors for the main roles. Jane herself was played by Mia Wasikowska ("Alice in Wonderland"), and the role of Mr. Rochester went to Michael Fassbender.

Jane Eyre was criticized for not being true to the original, but the setting, acting, and costumes were admittedly great. For the latter, the film even received an Oscar nomination, but lost to the French black-and-white film The Artist.

True detective

USA, 2014–2018.
Anthology, detective, crime drama, neo-noir.
Duration: 2 seasons.
IMDb: 9, 0.

After success in feature films, Carey Fukunaga turned to television. He became the sole director of the entire first season of True Detective. The series is dedicated to the investigation of the brutal murder of a woman. Detectives Martin Hart (Woody Harrelson) and Rust Cole (Matthew McConaughey) take on the job. At the same time, the action takes place alternately in three time periods: the mid-1990s, early 2000s and 2012, when the business was reopened.

The story, written by Nick Pizzolatto, has found living embodiment in Fukunaga's hands. He tried to show the work and problems of detectives as realistic as possible. Almost all the material was filmed on location: the action of the series takes place in the state of Louisiana, where the filming took place. And for the most believable transmission of everyday detective stories, the director watched the work of real state police officers for a long time.

Operator work can be called a separate advantage of the project. Under Fukunaga's direction, cameraman Adam Arkapou filmed very long shots to create a sense of liveliness in the viewer. So, for example, in one episode there is a six-minute scene, filmed in one frame without gluing. Combined with McConaughey and Harrelson's excellent acting, this led to a resounding success for the series and dozens of prestigious television award nominations.

Rootless beasts

USA, 2015.
War drama.
Duration: 137 minutes.
IMDb: 7, 8.

In his next film, the director continued the theme of brutal realism. The painting "Rootless Beasts" is based on a book by the writer Uzodinma Iweal of Nigerian origin. Moreover, Carey Fukunaga himself reworked the work into a script.

The plot tells about the civil war in West Africa. Young Agu finds himself alone after soldiers kill all of his relatives who remain in the village. He escapes and is captured by the rebels, whose leader is raising new soldiers from the children.

Fukunaga, as in No Name, tells the story of children whose lives are ruined by adult conflicts. War looks really scary through the eyes of a child. The director skillfully combines incredibly beautiful landscape shots with the frightening reality when children are given weapons.

Young actor Abraham Atta received several nominations for prestigious awards for his debut role. In general, the film was received with enthusiasm. He was shown at the Venice and London Film Festivals, he was nominated for BAFTA and Golden Globe and won many other awards. Everyone noted the relevance of the topic and the emotionality with which the author managed to present this story.

It

USA, 2017.
Horror, thriller, drama.
Duration: 135 minutes.
IMDb: 7, 4.

In the small town of Derry, children begin to disappear: they are dragged away by the scary clown Pennywise. Young Bill Denbrough and his friends, who are called the "Losers' Club", decide to confront him. But the trouble is that none of the adults believes them, and the clown turns out to be the embodiment of ancient evil.

With the film "It" the situation is somewhat more complicated than with the rest of the films. The new film adaptation of the famous Stephen King novel has been in production for a very long time, and during this time several directors have changed. And before Andres Muschetti got down to work, who eventually directed It, Carey Fukunaga had already written the script. As a result, it was partially reworked, but still many ideas remained.

Even in such a fantastic plot, Fukunaga wanted to add sociality and concentrate on the everyday problems of children. In the new version, the main evil is not the clown himself, but adults. Passers-by are indifferent, even when they see hooligans bullying a child, and their own parents bring children to phobias with excessive care.

If we compare the final result with the draft script by Carey Fukunagi, it is clear that he also wanted to devote more time to flashbacks telling about the origin of evil, as well as about the past of the black Mike Henlon, whose parents burned to death in a fire. But it seems that the producers considered his work too mundane and gave the reins to another director, and Fukunaga is listed in the credits as one of the scriptwriters.

Short films

Carey Fukunaga's career began in his student years with short films. He even won the 2004 Sundance Audience Award for his debut Victoria para Chino.

And even becoming a famous director, he sometimes continued to work on short films. Among them, for example, is the story of the acquaintance of a woman who first visited Africa with a local ranger.

Now Carey Fukunaga's career continues to develop. In the TV series "Maniac", he decided to add phantasmagoria and talk about patients in a psychiatric hospital. But how the new "James Bond" will look like under his leadership is still difficult to imagine. But we can already say for sure that viewers should expect very beautiful filming and a serious emotional plot.