Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan Re-Teaming for Mysterious New Movie
Longtime collaborators Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are re-teaming for a mysterious new project.
The Hollywood Reporter scoops that the dynamic duo behind Coogler’s big breakout hit, Fruitvale Station, as well as Black Panther, Creed (and its subsequent installments), and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has a new feature film in the works. The new, untitled movie is the first spec script from writer/director Coogler through his production company, Proximity Media. Yet Coogler’s no stranger to writing on spec, however—Fruitvale Station was conceived the same way. Only now, he’s at a point in his career where people come to him when he puts pen to page.
So what is this new film about? The conceit and everything else about the upcoming feature are being kept in Namor’s underwater kingdom (a Wakanda Forever reference for the uninitiated), but THR was able to find out that it’s a genre film, it’s an original idea from Coogler, and that executives and potential buyers had to head to the Beverly Hills office of WME to get a look at Coogler’s script. This all happened last week.
We don’t even know what genre Coogler is working in—will it be science-fiction, which both of his Black Panther films capably incorporated into the larger narrative? Will it be a thriller? Fantasy? Horror? There’s supposedly a period element to it, but no one knows for sure.
Coogler more than warrants this level of secrecy, let alone interest from potential partners, at this point in his career. He’s proven again and again he can take nearly any genre, from the heartbreaking drama of Fruitvale Station to the sweeping superhero Afrofuturism of Black Panther to reviving a beloved sports franchise in Creed and make it sing. And in Jordan, he’s found a compelling lead who can embody a hero or, as he so memorably did in the two Black Panther films, a riveting villain.
We’ll share more when we know more.
Featured image: Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan on the set of “Creed.” Courtesy Warner Bros.
