Cary Fukunaga & Idris Elba to Take Orders on “Beasts of No Nation”

When not busy making high end commercials for luxury brands (I caught the underwhelming video installation of Sleepwalking in the Rift in Karlovy Vary (see fest pic of the filmmaker above) or tinkering around with television ( True Detective – see below) Cary Fukunaga has been attached to a fair share of projects, but none appear to have been close to his filmmaking sensibilities (his Malick-like approach in African settings) until now. Deadline reports that Red Crown Productions is pairing actor Idris Elba (who happens to be a producer on the venture and the young filmmaker of Sin Nombre on Beasts of No Nation – a project that has been in the works for the better part of the last decade. Red Crown Productions’ Daniela Taplin Lundberg and Riva Marker, Fukunaga’s Parliament Of Owls’ and Amy Kaufman’s Primary Productions are producing while Daniel Crown and Bill Benenson will serve as executive producers.

Gist: Based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 book winning novel, as civil war rages in an unnamed West-African nation, Agu, the school-aged protagonist of this stunning debut novel, is recruited into a unit of guerilla fighters. Haunted by his father’s own death at the hands of militants, which he fled just before witnessing, Agu is vulnerable to the dangerous yet paternal nature of his new commander (Elba).

Worth Noting: Amy Kaufman produced Fukunaga’s debut film, and is extremely choosy in her projects (about one per year and a half pace). Her last was Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.

Do We Care?: Our appetites were half-whetted with Jane Eyre, so for his third gig we’re hoping for Fukunaga to swing for the fences and break out stylistically with this back-drop pleasing and intense nature of the project (forced child solider).