Cary Joji Fukunaga on directing the next James Bond movie: ‘Honored that they picked me’

Cary Joji
Fukunaga.
Eamonn M.
McCormack/Getty

• Cary Joji Fukunaga was named the director of James Bond 25 on
  Thursday morning. 
• He talked to Business Insider that afternoon about getting
  the job.

It might have been the biggest morning of director Cary Joji
Fukanaga’s career, but it didn’t seem that big a deal hours later
on Thursday while doing press for his Netflix series, “Maniac,”
which launches on Friday. Lounging on an oversized chair at a
hotel by Madison Square Park with his dog Eli, who he rescued
while making “Maniac,” Fukanaga didn’t seem to have a care in the
world.

So, at least on the outside, he’s taking the news that he’s the
director of the yet-to-be-titled 25th James Bond movie in
stride. 

A
tweet from the official 007 Twitter account went out in the
early morning announcing that Fukunaga would be replacing Danny
Boyle, who left the project a month ago over creative
differences.

Production will begin on March 4, 2019, with a release date
set for February 14, 2020.

“I don’t know if I can comment on any of the process stuff,”
Fukanaga told Business Insider. “I can’t talk about story,
anything else. I’m just honored that they picked me.”

Not only will the director, known for his incredible work on the
first season of “True Detective” and Netflix’s “Beasts of No
Nation,” now take the helm of one of the most treasured
franchises of all time, but directing Bond means it will be the
first time a movie of his gets a wide theatrical release. 

And that’s an aspect that he was willing to talk a little
about. 

“I love the theatrical experience,” he said. “[Netflix CCO] Ted
[Sarandos] was very generous in when we did ‘Beasts of No Nation’
in having a cinematic aspect of it, so that was awesome. But it’s
really hard to compete with day and date. It’s not indicative, I
think, of a real theatrical run.”

Though Fukanaga was quick to end it there and go back to talking
about “Maniac,” you could see in his eyes that he can’t wait to
make something that will appear on the largest screens all over
the world.