It’s been quite the past year for Barry Jenkins. After earning acclaimed for his breakthrough feature Moonlight, it went on to win Best Picture in a surprising, welcome victory and now he’s already begin working on his follow-up, an adaptation of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk (which nearly made the top spot on our list of the most-anticipated films of 2018, if it wasn’t for a new film from one of Jenkins’ favorite directors). We now have news on another project from the director in what will be a genre shift.
Deadline reports that the Moonlight helmer will direct the thriller Expatriate, set to star Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther, 42). Scripted by the actor himself alongside Logan Coles, Universal will produce the project, backed by Marc Platt. Although no details are known outside of it being “an international thriller set around a 1970s plane hijacking,” with this star and director attached, that’s all we need to know. In the meantime, as we await more details, check out Jenkins’ thoughts on one of the best films of 2017:
So… PHANTOM THREAD is just exquisite, an unfiltered work; a sublime object. Object in the sense that, when viewed from different angles, in varying moods, it reveals more and more of itself, other emotions and, for a film overrun with aesthetic objects, deepened ideas.
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 12, 2018
And some PDA for PTA: this was his most difficult film to build. At the very least, he’s never shouldered these on-set duties. And yet his hand is invisible here, an effortlessly deployed aesthetic, at once delicate and exacting, lilting and amorous — serene, confident, clear.
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 12, 2018
Like… as u watch this film, there are moments so soft and yielding u wonder if they were whispered into existence. As you watch this film, you’re reminded that PTA is an artist in full command of his voice and craft, working in a register unencumbered by the demands of craft.
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 12, 2018
I thoroughly enjoyed it, a work that feels like the evolution of my favorite PTA — PUNCH DRUNK, TWBB, THE MASTER. And if that all seems a bit much, just also know it’s pretty damn demented and, at times, laugh out loud hilarious ?
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 12, 2018
Oh… and that PIANO!!! @NonesuchRecords needs to bump that release date up I need that Johnny Greenwood vinyl on my shelf ASAP??
— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) January 12, 2018