Ryan Coogler's Personal Mission with 'Black Panther'
Black Panther is already building up a seriously solid cast, and Ryan Coogler seems like the perfect man to helm the upcoming superhero picture.Recently, he spoke on the challenges of transitioning from indie filmmaking to Hollywood blockbusters, and seems intent on bringing the same personal engagement to Black Panther as he did on Fruitvale Station and Creed.
“It’s a specific challenge. What Marvel’s doing, and what you see a lot of studios doing now that Marvel has done it so successfully, is making content that exists in a particular universe, where the characters tie in and crossover, and I think that’s a great creative challenge to me—to make this movie as personal as possible.
" It’s going to be my most personal movie to date, which is crazy to say, but it’s completely the case. I’m obsessed with this character and this story right now, and I think it’s going to be very unique and still fit into the overall narrative that they’re establishing.”
Given that numerous directors showed apprehension to the project, and Coogler's willingness to make this film personal to him, he seems like the right man for the job. He has an appreciation for broader-universe storytelling, coming from a comic book background.
“I grew up as a comic book fan, and the same things used to happen in the comic books. You’d have Wolverine’s books, and they’d be so much darker and more brutal than the X-Men books, but they’d still fit in when you open the pages of the X-Men book. It’s new to movies, but it’s not new to storytelling.”
Black Panther is due out February 16, 2018.
