Background
Fuqua was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Fuqua was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
After going to school for electrical engineering, with the hope of going on to fly jets in the military, Fuqua began his career directing music videos for popular artists like Toni Braxton, Coolio, and Prince, and then went on to become a film director His first feature film was the action film The Replacement Killers (1998), starring Chow Yun Fat. He is perhaps best known for the award-winning film Training Day.
Fuqua was scheduled to direct Prisoners, based on a storybook from Aaron Guzikowski, but left the project
Columbia Broadcasting System Films hired Fuqua to direct a new movie based on a Vince Flynn novel, Consent to Kill. In March 2011, Fuqua signed on to direct a film featuring the romantic love story between Consort Yang Yuhuan and Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang dynasty.
As reported in March 2013, he has stated that he"s awaiting for the film project to go through the appropriate Chinese government channels before directing the historical epic film, currently known as The Tang Dynasty. He was slated to direct Tupac Shakur"s official biopic.
The project was postponed to allow Fuqua to direct rapper Eminem"s second feature film, Southpaw.
However, Eminem put Southpaw on hold to focus on music, and was replaced with Jake Gyllenhaal. Fuqua moved on to Olympus Has Fallen (2013), an action thriller starring Gerard Butler and Morgan Freeman. Southpaw was released in 2015.
In May 2014 20th Century Fox set Fuqua to direct a drug smuggling thriller film Narco Sub which is scripted by David Guggenheim.
He co-created After Dark with Wesley Snipes, which was written by Peter Milligan and illustrated by Jeff Nentrup. Fuqua is directing The Magnificent Seven (2016), a modern-day remake of the 1960 western of the same name (The Magnificent Seven) and Akira Kurosawa"s Seven Samurai, on which the western was based.
Critical, public and commercial reception to films Fuqua has directed as of August 9, 2015.