Antoine Fuqua

Fuqua was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Carlos and Mary Fuqua. He is the nephew of record producer and executive Harvey Fuqua of The Moonglows. Fuqua paid tribute to screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto, a frequent collaborator of Akira Kurosawa's, saying his writing "affected a boy from Pittsburgh living in the ghetto."

[Shinobu Hashimoto's writing] was so beautiful and poetic and powerful and heartbreaking. It was all about justice, it was all about sacrifice, and it made me want to be one of those guys. I came from a rough area, and I had my own version of watching poor people getting pushed down – whoever the person was who had the power, they would come in and take from other people.[1]

Fuqua explained how his experience of violence shaped his adolescence, and played a role in his eventual choice of career.

My first big break was when I got shot when I was fifteen. It changed my life and it made me not hang out in the streets as much, and go to the movies more. Those sort of things are wake up calls to have a better appreciation for life, and a better appreciation for the people around you. From that moment in my life I put all my energy into what I believed in, and at that time it was playing basketball and sports. That led me to a scholarship...after that a professor said that I should take an art class...I fell in love with an artist by the name of Caravaggio.[2]

Before turning to filmmaking and music videos, Fuqua studied electrical engineering, with the hope of going on to fly jets in the military.[3]

Fuqua began his career directing music videos for popular artists such as Toni Braxton, Stevie Wonder, and Prince. He directed Michelle Pfeiffer in the video Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, and which was used to promote Jerry Bruckheimer's hit film Dangerous Minds.

The movie became a big hit and Jerry Bruckheimer was kind enough to give me a lot of credit for it because they used my music video... the irony was people thought I was the new French film director. No one had any idea was I was this guy from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. So I used to walk in the room and people would literally ask me to get coffee. And I would say, 'No, no, I'm the director', and I loved watching their faces. That was fun.[4]

From 1998 onwards, he began directing feature films, although he has worked on a few music videos since then. In a tribute article for TIME magazine, Fuqua expressed his early respect for Kurosawa as a filmmaker and how Kurosawa influenced his own perspective on filmmaking stating: "(screen writer Hashimoto's) … working with Akira Kurosawa and Hideo Oguni, was so beautiful and poetic and powerful and heartbreaking. It was all about justice, it was all about sacrifice, and it made me want to be one of those guys".[1]

His first feature film was the John Woo-produced action film The Replacement Killers (1998), starring Chow Yun Fat. He then directed the crime thriller Training Day (2001), for which star Denzel Washington won an Academy Award for Best Actor. His next films were the action war drama Tears of the Sun (2003), the Arthurian legend film King Arthur (2004), the conspiracy action thriller Shooter (2007), the crime film Brooklyn's Finest (2009), and the action thrillers Olympus Has Fallen (2013) and The Equalizer (2014), the latter of which again pairs Fuqua with Denzel Washington.

Fuqua at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival

He co-created the comic-book miniseries After Dark with Wesley Snipes, which was written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Jeff Nentrup.[5] Fuqua was scheduled to direct Prisoners,[6] based on a storybook from Aaron Guzikowski, but left the project.[7] He was slated to direct Tupac Shakur's official biopic.[8] The project was postponed to allow Fuqua to direct rapper Eminem's second feature film, Southpaw.[9] However, Eminem put Southpaw on hold to focus on music,[10] and was replaced with Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2010, CBS Films hired Fuqua to direct a new movie based on a Vince Flynn novel, Consent to Kill.[11] In May 2014, 20th Century Fox set Fuqua to direct a drug-smuggling thriller film Narco Sub, which is scripted by David Guggenheim.[12]

In March 2011, Fuqua signed on to direct a film featuring the romantic love story between Consort Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty.[13][14] As reported in March 2013, he has stated that he was awaiting the film project to go through the appropriate Chinese government channels before directing the historical epic film, currently known as The Tang Dynasty.[15]

His 2016 film was a remake of the action Western The Magnificent Seven (2016). The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the 1960 Western of the same name and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, on which the Western was based. Denzel Washington plays the lead role of Sam Chisolm.[16] Fuqua was also an executive producer of the 2016 television remake of Roots. His Fuqua Films company is signing a deal with the Weinsteins in 2016.[17]

On August 10, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Fuqua was in talks to direct a new Scarface film.[18] In January 2017, Fuqua left the project.[19] On February 10, 2017, it was announced that the film would be written by the Coen brothers.[20] On March 30, 2018, it was announced that Fuqua would direct the new film with Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer writing the screenplay.[21] On May 14, 2020, it was announced that Fuqua was no longer directing and that Luca Guadagnino has signed on to direct the film with the script still being written by the Coen brothers as previously confirmed.[22]

In early 2018, Fuqua became listed as one of the executive producers of the Fox medical drama series The Resident. In summer 2018, his thriller sequel The Equalizer 2 (2018) was released, with Denzel Washington returning in the starring role. In February 2019, it was announced that Chris Evans had entered negotiations to star in the sci-fi film titled Infinite, with Fuqua directing for film release in August 2020.[23]

Fuqua with his wife Lela Rochon in 2007

In 1998, actress Lela Rochon and Fuqua were engaged, and they married on April 9, 1999. Daughter Asia Rochon Fuqua was born on July 28, 2002, and son Brando in May 2004. Fuqua has a son, Zachary, from a previous relationship. He also has two granddaughters.

When asked by the BBC in September 2014 whether he believes in God, Fuqua said: "Absolutely. I believe in God, absolutely."[24]

Critical, commercial, and audience reception to films Fuqua has directed:

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Antoine Fuqua.

• Antoine Fuqua at IMDb
• Hollywood Reporter story on upcoming The Notorious B.I.G. film (from 2005)
• On Directing with Antoine Fuqua nthWORD Magazine Interview by Gina Ponce, April 2010
• Nicole Murphy Apologizes for Kissing Married Director Antoine Fuqua
• Nicole Murphy Apologizes to Antoine Fuqua's Wife After Kissing Pics Surface