Cary Joji Fukunaga's unrealized projects

The following is a list of unproduced Cary Joji Fukunaga projects in roughly chronological order. Over the course of his career, American filmmaker Cary Joji Fukunaga has ammased a number of projects he worked on that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell or were cancelled, while others were taken over and would see life under a different production team.

Untitled musical film
As early as January 2009, Fukunaga was reported to be developing a musical as a next possible film following Sin nombre. Further details were revealed in March, when he said was collaborating with Zach Condon of Beirut and Owen Pallett to write the music for the film, with the intention to "[push] narrative forward through song in a way that the songs aren't ruined." Fukunaga modeled his script after the Babylonian tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, and was working on the project for Focus Features. Fukunaga had since described it as "an urban-set film about unrequited love [with] a road trip component."

Untitled Pompeii film
At the same time as the musical, Fukunaga was working on a "tragic love story" set in Pompeii, for Universal Pictures. "I went down to Napoli, researched at Herculaneum and Pompeii. It took me two weeks," he said. "In two weeks, I got enough information to tear apart that movie frame-by-frame."

Untitled time travel film
On March 19, 2009, Fukunaga was said to be developing a science fiction feature, also for Universal. On March 26, 2009, The Playlist gathered that the project would center on time travel and also be "very human character piece that will transcend the genre."

A Soldier of the Great War
Fukunaga revealed in 2014 that he had been working with Edward Norton on an adaptation of Mark Helprin's A Soldier of the Great War for "almost five years" and that they "want to do it as soon as possible." Fukunaga was still writing the adaptation as of 2016.

The Foldings
On May 7, 2011, screenwriter Jeff Vintar tweeted that Fukunaga was in talks to direct his sci-fi script Spaceless for producer Gore Verbinski and Universal. In August, it was officially reported that Fukunaga would direct the film, as well as rewrite the screenplay. In 2013, Fukunaga confirmed that the project was still being developed, and that he had retitled it The Foldings, following several rewrites. "Because I kept rewriting it and it kept changing and changing, the story is so different from the original, that it metamorphosed," he said. "It's its own thing."

No Blood, No Guts, No Glory
On May 24, 2011, Variety reported that Fukunaga was hired by Focus Features to co-write (with Chase Palmer) and direct No Blood, No Guts, No Glory, a heist film set during the Civil War. The project, previously set up at Paramount, appeared on The Black List in 2009 and was based on the real-life commando mission. In 2012, Fukunaga told the Financial Times, "It is a version of Buster Keaton's The General, which was based on a real train heist, but told from the Yankee side." By 2013 however, he was no longer working on it. Palmer would reveal in 2019 that the project had "an endless array of directors attached over the years," before expressing interest in directing it himself.

The Wolverine
Variety also indicated that Fukunaga had been in contention to direct The Wolverine for 20th Century Fox at the time, before choosing to focus on No Blood, No Guts, No Glory as a project instead.

It Chapter One and It Chapter Two
In June 2012, Warner Bros. chose Fukunaga as the director of its adaptations of Stephen King's It, the first of which was initially due to start shooting in summer 2015. Fukunaga was set to direct the first film and was expected to co-write the second. With the help of writer Chase Palmer, Fukunaga developed the script for the first film, inserting a lot of their own childhoods into the story and updating the initial setting from the 1950s to the 1980s. But by May 2015, three weeks before production was slated to begin, Fukunaga left the project, citing that the studio did not trust him with the material.

Spectre
Before Fukunaga was hired to direct the James Bond film No Time to Die, he had been considered as a potential candidate for the previous entry in the series, Spectre. When Sam Mendes was signed to direct it, Fukunaga expressed his interest to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson in directing future installments.

The Noble Assassin
In August 2013, DreamWorks Pictures attached Fukunaga to direct a film adaptation of the unpublished book The Noble Assassin by Paul Nix, which tells the wartime story of French aristocrat-turned-anti-Nazi saboteur Robert de La Rochefoucauld. In 2014, Scott Silver was brought on to adapt the work, and in 2016, writers Adam Cooper and Bill Collage were signed by DreamWorks to work on the script.

Untitled war film
In February 2014, it was reported that 20th Century Fox had preemptively bought a pitch sold by Fukunaga for yet-titled project set in a contemporary wartime context. Nicole Riegel was hired to write the script as a vehicle for Fukunaga to direct.

The Black Count
In April 2014, it was reported that Fukunaga would adapt and direct a "big-screen version" of The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo, for Sony Pictures. The Pulitzer-winning biography chronicles the life and adventures of General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas during the French Revolution. In 2016, Fukunaga returned to the project after leaving as director of the series adaptation The Alienist. He was still working on the project as of 2018.

Napoleon TV miniseries
After True Detective aired, Fukunaga was hired to adapt and direct Stanley Kubrick's unmade Napoleon film as a Steven Spielberg-produced 6-hour miniseries for HBO. At the time, David Leland was to adapt Kubrick's feature script and research materials. Fukunaga confirmed the reports in 2018, saying that he was researching at the library in Kubrick's St Albans home, and spending lots of time with his surviving family members. In 2021, Fukunaga updated that "We've got all the scripts of the episodes now and we're getting ready to see where the next stage is on it. So it's happening."

The Alienist TV series
Fukunaga was originally slated to direct the 2018 TNT TV series The Alienist. He spent a year and a half adapting Caleb Carr's story, only to leave after 18 months as a result of budgeting and scheduling problems. Fukunaga was replaced by Jakob Verbruggen, retaining a "created by" credit and remained as an executive producer.

Shockwave
In 2017, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Fukunaga was in negotiations to direct Working Title and Universal's adaptation of Shockwave: Countdown to Hiroshima, a drama about the lead-up to the dropping of the first atomic bomb. At the time of the announcement, Hossein Amini was set to adapt the screenplay. In 2020, Fukunaga told The Wall Street Journal that playwright Tom Stoppard would be writing the script for Shockwave, replacing Amini. In 2021, Fukunaga revealed to Esquire that Stoppard was out of the project, and that he would be writing the film himself instead. "No matter how much you explain something to somebody else, they're going to have their own version, and it's not going to be the same as yours," Fukunaga explained. "If you really have an idea of what a movie should be, you should just write it yourself." With the film, Fukunaga had hoped to bridge both perspectives, on the American and Japanese sides.

The American
In 2018, Fukunaga was set to direct and produce the Leonard Bernstein biopic The American starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and produced and financed by BRON Studios. Structured into five segments, the film was to encompass Bernstein's rise to fame throughout the years. The script was adapted by Michael Mitnick from the Humphrey Burton biography Leonard Bernstein. Production on The American was slated to begin in fall that year.

The Last of the Mohicans TV series
In 2020, it was reported that a TV series scripted by Fukunaga and Nick Osborne based on James Fenimore Cooper's historic novel The Last of the Mohicans was in the works at HBO Max. It was described as being a "retelling" of the original story, focusing on an unlikely romance that develops between a young Mohican and a mixed-race daughter of a British colonel. Nicole Kassell was on board to direct the episodes, executive producing alongside Fukunaga, Osborne, Alex Goldstone, Bard Dorros and Michael Sugar.

Tokyo Ghost
In 2021, Fukunaga signed on to direct and produce a feature adaptation of the cyberpunk Image Comics series Tokyo Ghost, for Legendary Pictures. The stories are set in a dystopian society in which humanity has become fully addicted to technology as an escape from reality.