By Wilson Morales

Having two recent films (Tears of the Sun, King Arthur) that haven't performed successfully in terms of numbers, how does that affect your career in every different way?

Antoine Fuqua: It's a strange thing. "Tears of the Sun" had a lot to say. It's a tough movie to make about the genocide in Africa, and things like that. Nobody wants to hear the truth, and dealing with Bruce (Willis) was difficult because that's part of the whole Hollywood system. However it made a lot of money in Europe. King Arthur is going to make over $400 million dollars total. It's already at $200 million dollars now and it's making more money in Europe. So I don't know what that says. I'm having success there, but here, I think people want to see me do something like a Training Day again since I set that path for myself; which I going to do, I just want to say the right thing. Films are difficult and it's all about timing and quality. I wish it would had made $200 million here. Studios are still calling me.

Do you think you make any changes to your style?

AF: No. I just got a call from Jerry Bruckheimer recently about working together again. I was working on a film with Denzel Washington and Benecio Del Toro called American Gangster from Universal (Pictures), and although it's not going to happen now, it would have been a big movie. Sometimes it's not necessary about the financing, but about the quality. That's why I love the blues (in Lightning in a Bottle). It's the craft and art, and not necessarily about the numbers and box-office, although Hollywood does judge you on that.

Would you had made any changes to "Tears of the Sun"?

AF: Yeah, it would had been a different film. It would had been about the people and their suffering. It would had been about man's inhumanity to man and not heroism. That's really what it was all about. There's a price to pay to make certain types of movies. If you try to make a movies that's trying to say something, there's a chance that it may not make $500 million dollars.

Would you had made any changes to "Tears of the Sun"?

AF: Yeah, it would had been a different film. It would had been about the people and their suffering. It would had been about man's inhumanity to man and not heroism. That's really what it was all about. There's a price to pay to make certain types of movies. If you try to make a movies that's trying to say something, there's a chance that it may not make $500 million dollars. And then you have deal with this system, when sometimes people live in this bubble and then they don't want to hear it. They live in America and they don't want hear what's happening in Africa. I have this saying, "What's more important, truth or peace?" I choose truth, but there will never be peace until the truth is known; and to try to do that, you will have difficulties. When I did "King Arthur" I ran into difficulties.I found out that there were black knights. Rome conquered Arabia, and so there were people of dark skin and they were knights, but nobody would let me say that. There's a price to pay when you try to do that. Even more than ever, now I will fight harder to get the truth out. Once the truth is known, the real truth, in cinema, in music, and everything else, then I think I will have more success financially. That's what I experienced. I grew up with that guy. That's why it hit. "Tears of the Sun" was a little bit of the truth. It would have been more of the truth if more people probably would have saw it than the studios gave it credit for. They assumed the audience didn't want to see it so they marketed it as an action movie. It's all relative where I'm going in my life and what I've learned from my past has given me more clarity.

As a director, you have your vision of what the film should be about, but at the same time, when you take on the project, don't you also have a sense of what the studio and prodcucer are looking for as well? Do you go in there wondering how much control you will have to tell the story you want to tell?

AF: It's with anything or any art form. You go in there as an artist with you heart in the right place to just be honest. You go in there hoping everyone else is going to be honest. I'm just getting started, really; and what I'm discovering is that not everyone is being honest. People lie straight to your face and say, "We want to make a movie on Africa and on an important story. We want to make a movie, which is the film I was just working on about the drugs being brought in from Vietnam and America's involvement with that, the corruption. And all of a sudden, when you are deep in it and you are 3 weeks away from shooting, they want you to cut these things out. Now you are in a tough spot because for the last six months as a filmmaker, you dedicated your life to these stories. You've moved your families. You've done everything as an artist believing in that system that wow, maybe this time they are going to do it, and all of a sudden you're in a situation where they want to pull the plug on you if you don't do what they say. Then you have a choice to make.

Will you work again with Denzel Washington?

AF: Absolutely. Me and Denzel are great friends and we want to work together.

Do you think the system will change and will you keep hammering away?

AF: I will keep hammering away and will try to fing other routes. I will find independent routes, and raise money.

Can you talk about some of upcoming projects?

AF: Well, "The Untouchables: Capone Rising" is more about Al Capone's story and I can't comment too much on it because it's being written right now and we're still discovering our direction as we go, but the story will be more about Al Capone than Elliot Ness about his rise and fall. "Family Reunion" is something I'm developing for my wife and it's not really about family reunion as much as it is about human experience, people who come together, and go through the changes they go through. It's about the growth. "Bloods" is about the black experience in Vietnam; about the black men that died and fought with with white men. They had a saying that goes, "Same mud, same blood".