Barry Jenkins has seen The Lion King over 150 times

The director presents his prequel to Mufasa, a more personal project than it seems.

Six years after his last feature film, If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins is preparing to make his comeback to the cinema with Mufasa: The Lion Kinga prequel made with the same technique (photorealistic animation) as Jon Favreau's remake released in 2019 and which grossed more than $1.6 billion at the global box office.

The announcement of the collaboration between the Oscar-winning director of Moonlight and Disney had upset some moviegoers. A leading author of US indie cinema who accepts a commissioned film is confirmation that nothing is going well in Hollywood. But the reality is undoubtedly more complicated than that.

In a long portrait published by the Los Angles TimesBarry Jenkins looks back on his arrival on this family blockbuster, which was offered to him in full confinement, while he was working on the post-production of his shock series on slavery, The Underground Railroadof which he directed all 8 episodes. A project he was working on”8 days a week” and from which he came out exhausted.

“I wasn't overtly looking, but I really wanted something different, completely detached from the work I had done so far“, he recalls, while explaining that he welcomed the script that was sent to him with “a lot of skepticism. I didn't imagine that my style could be applied to this genre and this tone on a project of this scale, even if I was a huge fan“.

The word is out. The Lion Kingreleased in 1994, is a bedside film for Barry Jenkins. A cuddly toy. He estimates he has seen him more than 150 times, especially when he was looking after his young nephews. “It's probably the thing I saw the most before film school. When I was offered the script, reading it allowed me to touch that, who I was as a film fan.”

Mufasa would therefore be more personal for Jenkins than one might think. As much as Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk Or The Underground Railroad. “They represent a moment in my life and a moment in my artistic development. But they have nothing to do with the tastes I had growing up as a young person outside of this industry before becoming a director.“

Barry Jenkins assures that Mufasa is a film like any other, a character like any other, and that he treated it as such when preparing for filming.

“What does he feel? What are his doubts, his fears? What does he know? What does he think he knows when he doesn't? These are the same questions we ask ourselves when we make our films. And I think there's a reason they hired me for this film, I think they wanted me to take away the technology and ask these questions.”

Promotional speech or sincere word? We will be able to judge this from next December 18, the French release date of Mufasa: The Lion King. Trailer: