Let’s begin today with our first 2016 sighting of Cary Fukunaga who was in New York last night to receive the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression Award for Beasts Of No Nation. Not sure if Cary will be at the Golden Globes this weekend since Beasts was only nominated once for Idris Elba in the Supporting Actor category but the big prize is Oscar and Netflix is hoping that its first feature might be included on the list for Best Picture. Definitely a longshot though. Idris is probably their only chance.
Still, for Cary, Beasts Of No Nation was a big move for his career, and the most perfect way to walk away from True Detective. Direct an acclaimed TV series, pass on the second season, let the show creator talk his way deeper into a hole, and go off and be the first director for Netflix, followed now by names like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. And you’ll note, even though he didn’t know he’d contracted malaria while he was working on Beasts and pushed through it, and endured some profoundly challenging conditions, you’re not hearing about it constantly; nor have any of his actors, for that matter, been digitally fake sexually assaulted by an animal. It’s only Leo who has struggled THE MOST.
