Antoine Fuqua was gearing up to shoot his historical epic about Hannibal later this year, but Deadline reports that Netflix has halted pre-production over budget concerns. Uh oh.
Hannibal
Hannibal was a famed Carthaginian general who commanded Carthage’s forces in the Second Punic War against the Roman Republic. Fuqua has been working on this one for a while, with frequent collaborator Denzel Washington set to play Hannibal. John Logan, who wrote Gladiator, The Aviator, and Fuqua’s Michael Jackson biopic, has penned the script.
Deadline’s insiders say the studio and producers are working to get the movie back on track and resolve the budget issues, but a movie like this is always going to be pricey. The project has gotten fairly far ahead, as Netflix has been meeting with actors who will star alongside Washington, and Fuqua and his crew have been scouting locations in Italy. However, both sides agreed that it was probably best to slow things down so the project could get off on the right foot.
Hopefully, they get everything sorted because this is one I’ve always wanted to see.
Michael
Fuqua is currently enjoying the enormous success of Michael, which has grossed over $858 million worldwide. The biopic charts much of Jackson’s life, but ends in 1988 with the Bad World Tour, meaning there’s still a lot of story which could be told in a sequel.
And that sequel is already in the works. Lionsgate Studios Motion Picture Chair Adam Fogelson recently said that the studio is “really excited about the progress we’re making” on the Michael sequel. “All the conversations that we’ve been having with all of the appropriate parties continue to go exceptionally well,” he said, “and I would say that there is a ton of incredibly entertaining Michael Jackson story, and much of the biggest and most popular parts of his music catalog that were not touched upon in the first film.“
Our own Chris Bumbray had mixed thoughts about the film, saying, “While I’m probably making Michael sound pretty bad, here’s the thing: I actually enjoyed it. About fifty percent of the movie is dedicated to recreating the process of making and performing the music, and when they stick to that, Michael is a blast. In terms of a body of work, no matter what you think of the King of Pop, no one really touches him, so it’s a thrill to watch him put together Off the Wall or shoot Thriller.“
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