Barry Jenkins Says All-Virtual Filmmaking ‘Is Not My Thing’ After Directing ‘Mufasa’; Disney Sent Him a Note Worrying That One Long Take Was Too ‘Slow’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Disney’s “Mufasa” is one of the last remaining Hollywood tentpoles of the year, and it might be director Barry Jenkins‘ first and last time making an all-digital movie.

Jenkins is the Oscar winner behind acclaimed dramas such as “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” and he said in an interview with Vulture that he knows what everyone is thinking: “On what planet do I, Mr. ‘Moonlight,’ make a prequel to ‘The Lion King?'” “I can’t tweet about the Super Bowl without somebody reminding me that I’m making this fucking film,” he added. “I can’t … When I took this job, the idea was ‘What does Barry Jenkins know about visual effects?

Why the hell would he do this movie?’ I think part of that I found very invigorating. 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.” Vulture has an extensive breakdown of the three years Jenkins spent making “Mufasa” using all-virtual production tools, just as director Jon Favreau did before him on 2019’s “The Lion King.” The new film serves as a prequel to that story.