True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga trades the Yellow King for The Black Count

By Katie Rife | April 30, 2014 | 8:28pm

Aux Features Film

Thanks to his impressive run on True Detective, director Cary Fukunaga is currently hotter than that Big Hug Mug that went for $80 on eBay. Fukunaga has a number of projects in the works already, including a WWII spy movie and a new adaptation of Stephen King’s It, while his next film, the child soldier drama Beasts Of No Nation, goes into production in Ghana next month. But Fukunaga continues to play the field, and Deadline reports he’s also signed on to adapt and direct the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count of Monte Cristo for Sony.

The Black Count is the story of 18th-century French general Thomas-Alexandre Dumas, who was born into slavery in Haiti, only to rise to the highest ranks of Napoleon’s army. Dumas’ adventures heavily influenced his son Alexandre Dumas, who wrote idealized versions of his father’s exploits into novels like The Count Of Monte Christo and The Three Musketeers. Which of these projects, if any, will actually make it to theaters remains to be seen. But no matter what Fukunaga decides to do, expectations will be high.