Director Cary Fukunaga Sticking With TV

Cary Fukunaga made his mark in cinema (Jane Eyre) but it’s the small screen that has proved to be a comfortable home for the director’s distinctive visual style. After the triumphs of Netflix’s recent Beasts of No Nation and the first season of HBO’s True Detective, Fukunaga has signed a two-year deal with Paramount Television. “The deal gives Paramount TV exclusive rights to produce and distribute scripted television programming directed, written and/or produced by Fukunaga for broadcast, cable, premium cable and online audiences,” reports Variety.

[‘Beasts Of No Nation’ Director Cary Fukunaga Is Free]

Fukunaga’s production company, Parliament of Owls is currently working on an adaptation of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist for TNT. “Working with Paramount on The Alienist has been a great experience, and I’m thrilled to expand upon our partnership” said Fukunaga. “I look forward to digging in and collaborating on a number of exciting and diverse projects.” Fukunaga directing the Victorian-era New York crime story is good news for those of us who like their period dramas to throb with visual pleasure (as in Steven Soderberg’s The Knick, which you really, really need to watch.)  True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was unavailable for comment on the Paramount deal, presumably because he was somewhere in the backwoods of Louisiana sticking pins into a Fukunaga-shaped doll.