Banksy nearly worked on Children of Men

The director sort-of met up with the artist in a coffee shop

Alfonso Cuarón’s 2006 film Children of Men featured many murals on crumbling walls, trying to convey the dystopian nature of the environment with every shot.

In an interview looking back on the film with Vulture, Cuarón revealed that he approached Banksy about giving artistic input, which unfolded in typically Banksy, mysterious fashion.

Ultimately, the artist backed out, though he did allow Cuarón to use an existing mural in the background of a shot, a still of which can be seen above and the scene it is from below.

From Vulture:

'They also came close to having another artistic collaborator: the infamously anonymous street artist Banksy. “Banksy was not yet the famous Banksy that he is now, and I dug him,” Cuarón says. He wanted to have the graffiti artist work on the film in some way, so he tracked down Banksy’s manager and arranged a meeting at a coffee shop. Cuarón sat across from the manager, who started grilling the director on his ideological stances. Banksy was nowhere to be seen. The meeting ended without resolution. Only after it was over did a person nearby excitedly tell Cuarón that a silent figure had walked in during the meeting and placed himself behind Cuarón the whole time, hidden from view, then left before Cuarón could turn around. Cuarón suspects it was Banksy — who didn’t sign on for the film but reportedly gave permission through his manager to use one of his works, a stencil of two cops smooching, in the background of one of the shots.'

Read the feature in full here.