Lion King of Cinema

Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:

From Moonlight to Mufasa, Noomi Rapace's reckoning, Sundance 2024 screenwriter fellows, Darren Aronofsky's prodigy, and Cleopatra.

Let’s go!

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THE RISE OF A KING

Mufasa: Lion King. Disney.

Barry Jenkins’ Best Picture winner, Moonlight (2016), is a careful dissection of lost innocence.

The main character’s cycles of childhood abuse and teenage ostracization catalyze his hardened adulthood.

Jenkins’ new film, Disney’s live-action version of Mufasa: Lion King, is a more optimistic origin story.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Simba, having become king of the Pride Lands, is determined for his cub to follow in his paw prints while the origins of his late father, Mufasa, are explored.

Jenkins explained:

“As I was reading this wonderful script, I was thinking about Mufasa, and why he’s great, and how people become great.”

Jenkins continued:

“I was on stage at the Oscars with Moonlight. And I was there, and five of my best friends from college were also there... [similarly] Mufasa is great, because of the family and the friends that he has. And so I saw myself in that. I thought: ‘This is a really beautiful story to tell.’”

What fascinates me about Mufasa: Lion King is how Jenkins will test these friendships.

What made his film Moonlight so revelatory is the protagonist is so isolated that anyone who offers him the slightest attention, be that his abusive mother, the magnanimous stand-in father figure Mahershala Ali, or a school crush, molds his trajectory.

The original Lion King (1994), if nothing else, is a story of betrayal.

It’ll be captivating to see how Jenkins tackles his first big IP studio project and if he's able to maintain the shreds of his own origins.

Release date: Dec 20th.

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