Antoine Fuqua is brutally honest for mainstream Hollywood director which is very surprising in this time of political correctness. Fuqua of course is the director of Training Day which won Denzel Washington an Academy Award, Bait which helped launch Jamie Foxx and more recently Disney's King Arthur.

But the film he talked with me about was Lightning in a Bottle which brought him back to his music video days when he directed dozens of videos for musicians like Coolio, Prince and Arrested Development.

EvanX

Grand Rapids, MI

June 2003

OCT 20, 2004 10:42 AM

This man is a huge talent, but it keeps getting wasted on crap movies. I think he needs to move into the indie frield where he would have more control and not have big studios breathing down his neck.

Anyway, good interview.

Vampirate

Durham, NC

October 2004

OCT 20, 2004 07:48 PM

Overall, I think he had good things to say, as an artist and about trying to maintain an artistic vision in the face of conflicting financial interests. I do find it kind of silly that the "truth" he brings up as being stomped on in Arthur had to do with "black" (see footnote 1) "knights" (see footnote 2) in a movie that was still otherwise historically laughable. I hope the final condition of Arthur is meant to underscore his point, because otherwise it really undermines it.

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1. "Black" may have been how they referred to Arabians at the time (although, of course, the translation from whatever breton/keltic/aenglo-saxonic/jutic/etc. word they used at the time would, by now, be rather tenuous), but I certainly wouldn't call an Arab a "black" man now. I've read accounts where Arthur supposedly had one or more Nubian, Numidian, or Ethopian companions, whom I would be more willing to call "black." Also, any idea of a Roman "conquest" of Arabia is pretty tenuous. I think it would be much safer to say the Romans "had contact with" Arabia.

2. The concept of a "knight" not really being anywhere near fully formed in 5th century Briton.

walkswithbears

United Kingdom

March 2003

OCT 21, 2004 09:43 AM

EvanX said:
This man is a huge talent, but it keeps getting wasted on crap movies.

totally.

anyway, in related news from the imdb...

"Training Day director Antoine Fuqua is considering filing a breach of contract lawsuit against Universal bosses after being sacked from the now defunct gangster film Tru Blu for feuding with studio heads. Universal have reportedly agreed to sign off $30 million on the gritty Denzel Washington film - based on the life of real-life drug kingpin Frank Lucas - rather than press on with the project. And angry Fuqua, who fought for years to make the project, is intent on getting justice after falling out with studio bosses at Universal over where to shoot the film. He insisted on making the movie in New York, while the moneymen wanted save cash and locate to Canada. Fuqua says, "Me and Universal just disagreed on some things and we decided to part ways but my goal was always to tell the truth and do an authentic film and I think some people were afraid of that."