Antoine Fuqua’s Hannibal film now ‘dead’

Last month saw reports that the Denzel Washington-led production of Hannibal had paused production due to budget complications, and there are now updates that the project may be “dead”. The film, based on the life of military leader Hannibal the Great in his fight against the Roman Republic in the Second Punic War, was set to be directed by Michael’s Antoine Fuqua for Netflix, yet production had to be ceased when the studio and producers found conflict in the $200 million budget.

“The project had been gearing up over the past couple of weeks with Netflix meeting with actors to join Washington in the film as well as Fuqua and his crew scouting locations in Italy,” sources had previously stated about Hannibal’s development process. “When certain issues arose that still needed to be addressed, both sides agreed it was best to halt pre-production and get things in a good place that the studio and producers agreed on.”

Now, cinematographer Robert Richardson has hinted in a recent interview that the biopic has now been dropped, stating the film is “effectively dead.”

Filming was set to begin this summer in Italy.

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Hannibal would have seen Fuqua and Washington come together to work on a film for a sixth time, following 2001’s Training Day, The Equalizer series, and 2016’s The Magnificent Seven. The director’s additional credits include the record-breaking, box office smash hit, Michael, a musical biopic on Michael ‘The King of Pop’ Jackson, the documentary What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali, and the political thriller Olympus Has Fallen.

It seems now the director can focus more on the planned Michael sequel.

Meanwhile, Washington is due acting credits on the upcoming heist flick, Here Comes the Flood, by Fernando Meirelles. The actor has also recently appeared in Spike Lee’s crime thriller, Highest 2 Lowest, alongside Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, ASAP Rocky, John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Princess Nokia, and Ice Spice.