John Fusco is the creator and an executive producer of the epic Netflix original series, Marco Polo. Alongside Dan Minahan, Fusco serves as co-showrunner for the series, which consists of 10 episodes that will be made available exclusively via Netflix come Friday, December 12, at 12:01 am PT.
Starring newcomer Lorenzo Richelmy in the title role, Marco Polo–produced by Netflix and The Weinstein Company–is based on the famed explorer’s adventures in Kublai Khan’s court in 13th century China. The sweeping drama’s 10 episodes were shot in Italy, Kazakhstan and Malaysia. The global cast includes Richelmy, Benedict Wong (Prometheus), Joan Chen (Twin Peaks), Chin Han (Arrow, The Dark Knight), Zhu Zhu (Cloud Atlas), Olivia Cheng (The Flash, Broken Trail), Claudia Kim (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Mahesh Jadu (Neighbours), Tom Wu (Skyfall), Remy Hii (Treading Water), Uli Latukefu (Devil’s Playground) and Rick Yune (Olympus Has Fallen, The Fast and the Furious).
Also serving as executive producers on Marco Polo are Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg whose Kon-Tiki earned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination in 2013. Roenning and Sandberg’s feature credits additionally include Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, but they first established themselves in commercialmaking internationally and stateside. Known as the duo Roenberg, Roenning and Sandberg continue to be handled by Sandwick Media in the U.S. for spots and branded content. Among the assorted commercials directed by Roenberg over the years is Budweiser’s “Rex” for DDB Chicago which topped the USA Today annual poll of Super Bowl ads.
While Roenning and Sandberg directed the first two episodes, installments three and four were helmed by Alik Sakharov, episodes five and six by co-showrunner Minahan, seven and nine by David Petrarca, and eight and 10 by John Maybury.
Fusco brought a pedigree all his own to Marco Polo. He is the writer-producer of 10 major motion pictures, including Crossroads, Young Guns, Thunderheart, Hidalgo, The Forbidden Kingdom and the Academy Award-nominated Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
Fusco’s upcoming film productions include The Alchemist, Last Train to Memphis (produced by Mick Jagger), The Highwaymen, The Shack, and the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
Fusco is also the author of the novels Paradise Salvage, Dog Beach, and the award-winning children’s book Little Monk and the Mantis.
SHOOT: What drew you to the story of Marco Polo?
Fusco: Most general knowledge of Marco Polo as an historical figure is cursory at best. He has always fascinated me from the time when I was a kid. I was fascinated by China and ancient Asian history–and would always come across the name Marco Polo. I read his accounts of his travels. And I couldn’t believe how fascinating, dramatic and rich his story was as compared to the mythology that survived. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard jokes about the Marco-Polo swimming game, and the myths that he brought noodles back to the Western World. But when you really look at him, his story, legacy and relevance are pretty mind blowing.
In 2007 I took a horseback trip across a part of central Mongolia with my 13-year-old son and nomad guides. I kept encountering the name Marco Polo, which re-sparked my fascination with him. I wanted to immerse myself in his story and do justice to it the only way it could properly be served–as a long-form series. Here’s a man who was groomed by Kublai Khan to be an emissary and special diplomat during turbulent times in world history. While he didn’t bring noodles back on the Silk Road, he did bring back information that contributed to Europe coming out of the dark ages–from educating the world on paper currency, the printing press, the concept of public education, sharing early renderings that would become the first map of China.
It’s not like we’re doing the History Channel here. But it’s great to break Marco Polo free from the trivial mythology out there.
SHOOT: What led you to Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg as series executive producers and as directors of the first two episodes?
Fusco: Joachim and Espen up front were the idea of Harvey Weinstein. He had us watch Kon-Tiki and from that we could see they would be perfect for the first two hours [of Marco Polo]. They know how to get the intimate moments within the epic and how to find the epic moments in the intimate scenes. They have a great sense of adventure.
SHOOT: How did you maintain the continuity of the series with other directors following Roenning and Sandberg–and for that matter, with three different cinematographers: Romain Lacourbas who shot episodes one, two, seven and nine; Vanja Cernjul who lensed episodes three, four and eight; and Xavier Grobet who shot episodes five and six?
Fusco: Credit Dan Minahan, executive producer and showrunner, who directed a couple of the episodes. He was so great at serving the vision for the show by finding the right director for each episode.
We also put together a visual look book, a visual bible for the directors. Dan was the great unifier, finding the unifying visual vernacular for the directors and cinematographers. The selection of cinematographers was also the outgrowth of the different directors and their preferences–all in collaboration with Dan who kept the big-picture perspective of what was best for the overall story. Dan knew all these directors, got together with them and discussed who would be the right cinematographer for each episode. What all the cinematographers we used had in common was that they were great handling an epic look; they are all very cinematic.
SHOOT: What were the lessons learned from your experience on Marco Polo?
Fusco: If you really believe in a project, your dream can come true. I spent a long time on Marco Polo and there were times when I didn’t know if it was going to be made. But if you keep believing and keep on pushing, good things can happen. And as it turned out, this happened at the right time with the right platform, Netflix.
The other big takeaway for me was the importance of teamwork. People talk about a show creator’s vision but without the team, that’s meaningless. The project becomes the entire team and the entire team’s vision. This was a really special show. I felt that everyone on the show became a family and what held that family together was our shared absolute belief in the material. It takes a village.
