DUBAI: US filmmaker Barry Jenkins, known for his unique storytelling approach in films like the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” and “If Beale Street Could Talk,” was never in the business of making CGI-heavy blockbusters. But when Disney calls, you answer.

“Mufasa: The Lion King,” a prequel to the 2019 photorealistic telling of the 1994 classic, sees Jenkins take the directorial baton from Jon Favreau — and he says a vital piece of advice from the latter helped him see the project through. 

“His advice was very simple and concrete. He said, ‘Just forget about the tech. Forget about the tech and just find whatever way you can to tell the story in your voice.’ It was really crucial,” Jenkins told Arab News.

“We still, of course, had to learn the technology, and sort of master it. But we realized very quickly we weren’t beholden to the way the technology was being presented to us, and that we could sort of mold it and meld it to fit our storytelling principles.”

Exploring the unlikely rise of the beloved king of the Pride Lands, “Mufasa” enlists Rafiki (John Kani) to relay the legend of Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) to young lion cub Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), daughter of Simba (Donald Glover) and Nala (Beyonce), with Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen) lending their signature schtick.

Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub who meets a sympathetic lion named Taka (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) — the heir to a royal bloodline. Their chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey for the adoptive brothers, with their bonds tested as they work together to evade a deadly foe.

The concept of found family is integral to “Mufasa,” and while there are no surprises as to Taka’s eventual identity, Jenkins says telling his story was as important as telling Mufasa’s.

“When I first read the script, I was surprised and moved by the depth of this backstory. But then I was like, why am I surprised? Because when you watch the 1994 film, Jeremy Irons is bringing so much heartache, so much woundedness, so much bitterness to this performance. And this story is really about the energy of that woundedness, of that heartbreak. And so, I shouldn't have been surprised,” said Jenkins.

“But once I read the script, I did realize that the success of the film, the emotional success of it, was going to depend on the quality of that bond and the way we detail it. So it was really important to us,” he added.

Charged with making the film’s music Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the pop culture phenomenon “Hamilton.” Jenkins says he couldn’t have found a more perfect collaborator. 

“I just always have admired how earnest Lin is in his work. If you look at interviews of him speaking about anything he’s done, you can tell he’s so earnest and passionate about what he does. And you know, you can’t make the ‘Lion King’ in a cynical way. You have to be just earnest about it. And I thought when it came to this idea of making a musical, I’ve never done that, so let me work with someone who has and who’s done it very well,” said Jenkins.

The star-studded cast — including Mads Mikkelsen, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen — bring fresh perspectives to the beloved “Lion King” universe.

When asked what made him say yes to the project, Mikkelsen — who plays the villainous albino lion Kiros — said that apart from the fact that he simply “loved lions,” he could see the parallels between Mufasa and his character.

“There’s not a big difference between Mufasa and Kiros. In the sense of their upbringing, except that Mufasa loses his parents in the beginning. They don’t throw him out. And that’s the opposite story with Kiros. He was abandoned. He’s an albino lion, and in the animal kingdom, it’s a no-go. So, his heart is darker than Mufasa. There’s no hope in his heart. That’s just survival. And so, he finds his own pride, and he wants a piece of the cake. He wants the entire cake,” Mikkelsen said.

Bringing the laughs in “Mufasa” are Eichner and Rogen, returning to play Timon and Pumbaa, respectively.

For Eichner, the film brings him strangely full circle.

“I saw the original in 1994 with my parents in the movie theater. I remember that. And then, strangely enough, several years later, when it went to Broadway in the very acclaimed Broadway production, I was right out of college and one of my first jobs was being a bartender at the ‘Lion King’ on Broadway. And I didn’t get to see the show. They wouldn’t let you watch the show, but they would pipe the audio from the show into the lobby so that we could hear it and know when intermission was coming. So, I’ve heard a lot of ‘Lion King’ in my life,” he said.

Rogen enjoyed collaborating closely with Eichner as they recorded their parts together, allowing them to work more organically.

“We get to record together, which is really rare in these types of movies. I think a lot of the dynamic that we have in the movies wouldn’t be possible if we were recording it two different times were, like, really interactive with one another and building off of what the other person’s saying in the moment. And it’s very fast as well. And yeah, it’s just really cool to get afforded the opportunity to carve out a little section of these giant, expensive franchise movies with our little brand of improvizational comedy. It’s cool that they let us do that,” Rogen said.

When asked if they could recall any of their improvised bits in the movie, Rogen said: “There’s some meta jokes that break the fourth wall. Billy makes some references to the Broadway show. We have a lot of jokes on how we wish we had more songs and more screen time. I mean, all that stuff that was just really making us laugh as we were doing it. And no part of me thought it would make it into the movie, honestly, but a lot of it made it into the movie.”

Eichner added: “I also like when Timon and Puma become a little bitter and resentful at Rafiki because he’s inserting himself into the story, but not giving us a part in it. At the premiere, actually, which is the first time I saw it with an audience, I had forgot about that. And that was kind of surprising that we’re allowed to do that in the movie, but it almost feels like that part is more for the adults in the crowd.”

JEDDAH: For British historian Bettany Hughes, the story of the Nabateans is as vital as those of the ancient Greeks, Romans or Egyptians. 

In a new three-part series, “Bettany Hughes' Lost Worlds: The Nabataeans,” Hughes traces the titular civilization’s incense trade routes from the Arabian Peninsula to the Mediterranean, accessing newly revealed research across Saudi Arabia’s Al Ula, Jordan, Greece, Italy and Oman. 

“For me, you can’t understand the classical world unless you understand the Nabataeans — they are the missing link in the story of society, because, in many ways, they were the engine that drove many other civilizations. They connected the far edges of the Arabian Peninsula with the center of Europe, and without them, that line of connection wouldn’t have happened,” Hughes told Arab News on the sidelines of this month’s Red Sea International Film Festival, where the show’s first episode was screened.  

Her decades of research have revealed that Petra, the Nabateans’ iconic capital, was just a small part of a vast empire that is only now revealing its secrets. 

“When you say, ‘These are the guys that built Petra,’ then people go, ‘Oh, yeah. I always wondered.’ But that’s why we’re doing this series; to remind the world that they have this whole other story, whole other centers of operation. And to try to write them back into history. They’re a very cool culture. I’m very impressed by them. 

“They love happiness. They love liberty. Women seem to have a really strong role in their society. They’re all about trade and communication — and therefore understanding people beyond borders and boundaries. So, I think there’s a lot that we can learn from them as a culture,” she continued. 

Hughes’ entry point to the Nabateans came almost three decades ago. 

“It was initially through trying to do detective work on the trade network,” she explained. “I knew that the Romans were obsessed with incense. I knew that Tutankhamun was buried with incense balls in his tomb. And I thought, ‘So, who’s delivering that?’ Because I also knew that incense came from that southern edge of the Arabian Peninsula. So, who was in charge? 

“And then I saw this coin of Aretas IV, who was probably the most powerful of all the Nabatean kings. And Huldu, his queen, was also on the coin. And I just thought that that doesn’t happen often. That’s really interesting, so I needed to get to the bottom of their story,” Hughes added. 

And since Saudi Arabia’s AlUla has been opened up to the outside world over the past few years, Hughes jumped on the opportunity to learn more about the civilization that’s recurrently appeared on the edges of her research efforts.  

She first travelled to the historic site in 2022, heading deep into the deserts of AlUla, even spending time with the still-existing Bedouin communities there, tracing how the Nabateans traversed the harsh landscape with their camels and the stars as guides. 

The first episode of “Lost Worlds” is dedicated entirely to AlUla, in the second episode they visit Europe, before heading to Petra in the third and final episode.  

Hughes credited her love for history to one of her schoolteachers. 

“When I was growing up, history wasn’t fashionable. People would say, ‘Oh, it’s irrelevant. All the answers lie in the future.’ And I just knew that couldn’t be true — that there was this reservoir of ideas and inspiration and understanding that came in the past,” she said. “And then I had a brilliant teacher who said, ‘Go for it. Even if you’re unpopular, even if people are saying no, make it happen.’ That kind of gave me the confidence to plow ahead. 

“I then went to Oxford to study history, and I was very aware that in the official stories of the world that I was reading as a student, women didn’t feature very much. Even though I knew, obviously, we’d been 50 percent of the human population forever, we only occupied a tiny percentage of recorded history. So I felt that was something I could help with,” she continued. “I don’t just write about women’s history, but I’m always looking for the gaps — and the story of the female role in history is one of those gaps that needs filling.”