Cary Joji Fukunaga Sets Up Show At Fox; Will Not Direct ‘True Detective’ Season Two
Thanks to his featuresSin NombreandJane Eyrewe’ve been enthusiastic forCary Joji Fukunagafor years, but now that his showTrue Detectivereally owns the public imagination he’s finally getting big recognition from all corners of the entertainment industry.
Fukunaga directed all eight episodes of the HBO limited series, with six having aired so far. With two weeks left in the very odd and unsettling police drama he directed for creator/writer Nic Pizzolatto, and a few feature developments in the fire (including Stephen King’sIt) what’s next for the filmmaker?
What isn’t next isTrue Detectiveseason two; while Pizzolatto is writing the follow-up season now, and Fukunaga will return as an exec producer,Deadlinesays he will not be in a more involved producer role, and he will not direct the season.
But Fukunaga has just sold a show pitch to Fox, “set in a contemporary wartime context” and written byNicole Riegel. That’s a show that Fukunaga would direct, but whether he’d have the same “all-in” involvement he did withTrue Detectiveis something we don’t know.
His next feature will beBeasts of No Nation, which he also wrote, and which will have Idris Elbastarringin a story about a relatively well-brought-up boy being recruited as a child soldier into a group of West African guerrilla soldiers commanded by Elba.That’s already shooting. And he’s still working on thefilm versionofItfor Warner Bros., which afterTrue Detectiveprobably seems like one hell of a good idea, at least for Stephen King fans. That one is farther off, and given the wayThe Standhas been developing at Warner Bros., is something we’ll believe is happening when actors are signed.
