Barry Jenkins on why he made 'Mufasa' and how it changed him as a filmmaker

NEW YORK (AP) — Over the four years he’s spent working on “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Barry Jenkins estimates that he’s been asked why he wanted to make it at least 400 times.

The question of why Jenkins, the filmmaker of “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “The Underground Railroad,” would want to jump into the big-budget, photorealistic animated Disney world of lions and tigers has bedeviled much of a film world that reveres him.

Countless other directors had made leaps into CGI-heavy blockbuster-making before. But Jenkins’ decision was uniquely analyzed – perhaps because there’s no more heralded, or trusted, filmmaker today under the age of 50 than Jenkins.

“It just thought it was something I could not deny,” Jenkins says. “I had to do it.”

“Mufasa,” which opens in theaters Friday, brings together movie worlds that ordinarily stay very far apart. On the one hand, you have the Oscar-winning, 45-year-old director of some of the most luminous and lyrical films of the past decade. On the other, you have the intellectual property imperatives of today’s Hollywood. What happens when they collide?

The result in “Mufasa,” about the lion cub's orphaned upbringing set both before and after the events of Jon Favreau's 2019 remake of “The Lion King,” is an uncommonly textured and thoughtfully rendered spectacle that, Jenkins maintained in a recent interview, has more in common with “Moonlight” than you’d think. Made with virtual filmmaking tools, “Mufasa” essentially plopped one of the most groundbreaking filmmakers working today into an all-digital playground, with a budget more than a hundred times that of “Moonlight.”

Often in “Mufasa,” you can feel Jenkins’ sensibility warming and enhancing what can, in other less sensitively commanded films, feel soulless. With songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, “Mufasa” works as a big-movie entertainment and, even more surprisingly, as a Barry Jenkins film.

“My head was spinning when this started,” Jenkins says. “It actually reminded me of when I first got into filmmaking. This felt oddly enough very similar to that first experience. You can sort of run away from that newness and be intimidated by it, or you can embrace it, learn the things you don’t know and then start to bend it.”

It’s also an experience that has quite evidently changed Jenkins, exponentially expanding his filmmaking tool kit while opening his eyes to new ways of making movies. “It was almost like learning a new language,” Jenkins says of the process. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Jenkins: At least 400 times. But it came down to the spirit and the warmth of Jeff Nathanson’s script and also the spirit and the warmth I always found in the story. I came to “The Lion King” by babysitting my nephews way, way back in the 1990s. My sister was a single mom and I’d be at home watching with the kids. You’d put on different VHSs and “The Lion King” was always the one that stuck. I just thought: Wouldn’t it be interesting to, coming out of something like “The Underground Railroad” to step into this thing that’s so full of light?

JENKINS: Maybe warmer, lighter but still just as deep, just as spiritual. This idea of family legacy, of finding your place in the world, those are things that are very present in “Moonlight” and “The Underground Railroad.” If I was telling you, “I’m going to make this film about this kid who has this almost biblical experience involving water and a parent figure that he then gets displaced from, and has to find his place in the world, I could be talking about “Moonlight” or I could be talking about “Mufasa.”

JENKINS: It wasn’t about the notions of who people thought I was. But I was looking to expand just the kind of filmmaking I was doing at that point. This came right in the thick of pretty much a seven-year cycle, from beginning “Moonlight” to being in post on “The Underground Railroad,” the way this movie is made, with this virtual production, it’s just a very new way of making films. There’s maybe been five or six movies made with this technology.

JENKINS: I did. We evolved this process to the point where we could create so much of all the world and the movement in virtual space, and we could then take our virtual cameras into virtual production. We evolved the animation to the point where we could create the light, we could create the set, we could create the environment. (Cinematographer) James (Laxton) would be there and I would be there, and we’re blasting the voices of the actors into the room and the animators are moving through and I’m directing the blocking, and the camera is responding to the blocking in real time.

JENKINS: Absolutely. Look, I’m a filmmaker who was on set with “Moonlight,” I’ve got 25 days and the sun is going down. Yeah, you’re trying to find a place for the camera, you have ideas, but those ideas aren’t practically achievable. In this sense, the camera could be anywhere. It could be everywhere. It’s sort of the same questions but the possibility of answering is so immediate and direct.

JENKINS: I want to unpack what you just said. We’ve been talking, and I’ve been talking about using these tools to create a very physical, in-person experience. I don’t consider this a project that’s all digital and all computer animated. If I made this movie again right now, it wouldn’t take me four years. It’d probably take me two and a quarter. If I was going to do another one of these films, I would have such a stronger foundation. It wouldn’t feel like something that’s alien or something that’s other or that’s all digital. It would just feel like filmmaking.

JENKINS: One thousand percent. I love through this process I’ve learned so many other ways of making a film that I just could not learn making something like “The Underground Railroad.” What I love now is the overlap between the two of them. When I began this process, I talked to Matt Reeves because I had heard he had used some of these tools to pre-vis “The Batman.” He said, “Do you know that shot where the Penguin is in his car and Batman is walking upside down? I discovered that in the volume.” I said, “Of course you did.” I was like, Oh my God, we could have pre-vised “Moonlight” with this technology.

JENKINS: One thousand percent. The light can be anywhere in this film and the camera can be anywhere. That doesn’t mean it should be everywhere. The next time I go out to make a film whether it’s something like “The Underground Railroad” or “Beale Street,” James and I are probably going to incorporate these tools as well. Because figuring out the light is half the battle, as they say in “G.I. Joe.”

JENKINS: This is all new. It’s all being developed right now. We went down to “Avatar” and spoke to the engineers there. They heard what we were trying to do and sent some people to embed with us and they helped us evolve our process, so we could have these animators with two legs move as if they have four legs. What I’m saying is: This is the wild, wild West.

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the film "Mufasa" on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the film "Mufasa" on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the film "Mufasa" on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

From left to right Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Aaron Pierre, Anika Noni Rose, Billy Eichner, Seth Rogan and Barry Jenkins attend a photo call for Mufasa: The Lion King at Potters Field, in London, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. (Ian West/PA via AP)

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the film "Mufasa" on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

Filmmaker Barry Jenkins poses for a portrait to promote the film "Mufasa" on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States said Sunday it rescued a service member missing behind enemy lines since Iran downed a fighter jet, as President Donald Trump escalated pressure on Tehran with a new looming deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran showed no signs of backing down, striking economic and infrastructure targets in neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

The airman’s extraction followed a U.S. search-and-rescue operation after the Friday crash of the F-15E Strike Eagle, as Iran also promised a reward for anyone who turned in an “enemy pilot.” Trump said he was injured but in stable condition.

“This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,” Trump wrote on social media.

A second crew member was rescued earlier.

The fighter jet was the first American aircraft to have crashed in Iranian territory since the U.S. and Israel launched the war, striking Iran on Feb. 28. The war has since killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.

Trump said last week that the U.S. had “decimated” Iran and would finish the war “very fast.” Two days later, Iran shot down two U.S. military planes, showing the ongoing perils of the bombing campaign and the ability of a degraded Iranian military to continue to hit back.

As Iran continues to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, Trump, in a weekend social media post, threatened to unleash “all Hell” if it isn’t opened by Monday. He has issued such threats before and extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war on agreeable terms.

The other jet to go down was a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft. Neither the status of the crew nor exactly where it crashed was immediately known.

On Sunday, Iran’s state TV aired a video showing what it claimed were parts of American aircraft shot down by Iranian forces, along with a photo of thick, black smoke rising into the air. The broadcaster said Iran had shot down an American transport plane and two helicopters that were part of the rescue operation.

However, a regional intelligence official briefed on the mission told The Associated Press that the U.S. military blew up two transport planes due to a technical malfunction, forcing it to bring in additional aircraft to complete the rescue.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the covert mission.

In Kuwait, Iranian drone attacks caused significant damage to power plants and a petrochemical plant. They also put a water desalination station out of service, according to the Ministry of Electricity. No injuries were reported, the ministry said.

In Bahrain, a drone attack caused a fire at one of the national oil company’s storage facilities and a state-run petrochemical plant, the kingdom’s official news agency said.

In the United Arab Emirates, authorities responded to multiple fires at the Borouge petrochemicals plant that they said were caused by intercepted debris. Production at the plant in Ruwais, near the UAE’s western border with Saudi Arabia, was halted.

The strikes came a day after Israel struck a petrochemical plant in Iran that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said generated revenue that it had used to fund the war.

The petrochemical industry is a key sector in many Gulf states. Plants in Bahrain, the UAE and Iran convert oil and gas into products like plastics, polymers and fertilizer, bringing in billions in export revenue.

Trump renewed his threats for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz by Monday or face devastating consequences, writing Saturday in a social media post: “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”

The waterway is a critical chokepoint for global energy shipments, especially oil and gas moving from the Persian Gulf to Europe and Asia. Disruptions there have injected volatility into the market and pushed oil and gas-importing countries to seek alternative sources.

“The doors of hell will be opened to you” if Iran’s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country’s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump’s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.

But Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government’s efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track” after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.

“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.

This report has been corrected to show that Borealis is an Austrian company, not Australian.

Metz reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo. Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Vehicles and motorcycles move past an anti-U.S. billboard depicting the American aircrafts into the Iranian armed forces fishing net with signs that read in Farsi: "The Strait of Hormuz will remain closed, The entire Persian Gulf is our hunting ground," at the Eqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

In this image provided by Sepahnews, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official website, wreckage is shown at what Iran's state TV claimed was the site of a downed American transport plane and two helicopters involved in a rescue operation, in Isfahan province, Iran, April, 2026. (Sepahnews via AP)

In this image provided by Sepahnews, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official website, wreckage is shown at what Iran's state TV claimed was the site of a downed American transport plane and two helicopters involved in a rescue operation, in Isfahan province, Iran, April, 2026. (Sepahnews via AP)

In this image provided by Sepahnews, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official website, black smoke rises into the air at what Iran's state TV claimed was the site where an American transport plane and two helicopters involved in a rescue operation were shot down, in Isfahan province, Iran, April, 2026. (Sepahnews via AP)

In this image provided by Sepahnews, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's official website, wreckage is shown at what Iran's state TV claimed was the site of a downed American transport plane and two helicopters involved in a rescue operation, in Isfahan province, Iran, April, 2026. (Sepahnews via AP)

Members of Lebanon's General Security stand at the Masnaa border crossing in the Bekaa valley, eastern Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man, who fled Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon with his family, sleeps in his car used as shelter, along a seaside promenade in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Followers of Iraq's Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr chant slogans as they wave national Iraqi flag during a protest against U.S. and Israeli attacks on multiple cities across Iran, in Tahrir Square, Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

A bedroom is damaged in a building struck in an Israeli airstrike in the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

Pedetrians walk by a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh, with the mosque visible in the background, which officials at the site say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday, in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Police officers and their horses take cover in an underground parking garage as sirens warn of an incoming missile fired from Yemen in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

A man looks at a destroyed building within the Grand Hosseiniyeh complex that officials say was hit by U.S.-Israeli airstrikes Tuesday in Zanjan, Iran, Saturday, April 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)