Greta Gerwig attends the Seoul Premiere of Barbie. She has now signed a deal with Netflix to make two Narnia films. Photograph: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty ImagesAfter his success with The Godfather, Francis Ford Coppola got to direct The Conversation. William Friedkin moved straight from The French Connection to The Exorcist. Michael Cimino won the best picture Oscar for The Deer Hunter and went on to bankrupt the industry with Marxist western Heaven’s Gate.
What is now a director’s reward for critical or financial triumph? A torrent of cash? Yeah, maybe. Keys to the studio? Well, not quite. They will get keys to one hefty corner of the studio – the corner that deals with cartoons, leotards and wizards. Film bores have, over the last few years, risked ocular hernia from rolling eyes at the high-budget projects offered to, and apparently accepted by, directors of promise.
Where to begin? Ryan Coogler went from Fruitvale Station to Black Panther. Cate Shortland went from Somersault and Berlin Syndrome to Black Widow. Chloe Zhao moved straight from Nomadland to Eternals. And that’s just the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Niki Caro, who broke through with Whale Rider, ended up on the dreary live-action Mulan. Patty Jenkins, underused since her Oscar-nominated Monster, directed the Wonder Woman films. And on and on.
The debate reached shouting volume when Barry Jenkins, among the most acclaimed film-makers of his generation, signed up to direct the pseudo-live action sequel to the pseudo-live action remake of The Lion King. Few recent pictures are more elegant than Jenkins’s Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk . What could have persuaded Jenkins to give so much of his time to another link in the franchise chain? We shall see when Mufasa: The Lion King emerges next year.