Oscar winner Barry Jenkins started the new year the way he ended the year before, with two films – “Mufasa: The Lion King” and “The Fire Within” – in the top 10 at the box office.
It’s a feat Jenkins — who co-wrote “The Fire Inside” with Rachel Morrison while editing her Oscar-winning 2016 film “Moonlight” — could never have planned. At first glance, the two films appear to have little in common.
Disney’s big-budget film “Mufasa” has a huge cultural footprint thanks to 1994’s “The Lion King,” which became one of the highest-grossing films of all time with cinema legend James Earl Jones voicing Mufasa. By contrast, “The Fire Inside,” a biopic about Claressa “T-Rex” Shields, the first American woman to win a gold medal in boxing, is significantly smaller.
Jenkins told NBC News that the main character’s arc, “who has to go on this journey to realize himself,” is what attracted him most to “The Fire Inside” in its early days. It’s a theme, he says, “I realize is now very present in my work.”
As Jenkins continues to grow as a filmmaker while expanding the scope and focus of the stories Hollywood tells, his themes explore the journey of self, as well as the values of community and “family.” found”, even in its global context. blockbuster.
What “attracted” Jenkins about Mufasa was that the character was known in the original “Lion King” as “this great leader, this perfect father, the perfect king, and we assume that’s how he is.” because of the character traits he inherited. I think I’m decontextualizing that and showing that just like Claressa Shields, or just like the character in “Moonlight,” that he’s coming from this other place, and learning from his community, through the really wonderful care of a woman who is essentially his adoptive mother.”
