Has Marvel finally found the best choice to direct its upcoming "Black Panther" movie? The studio is reportedly in talks with "Creed" director Ryan Coogler to helm the movie starring Chadwick Boseman, according to Birth. Movies. Death.
"Creed," an extension of the "Rocky" franchise, has received rave reviews and critics have praised Coogler's ability to make the story his own while still staying true to the previous movies, starring Sylvester Stallone.
Coogler earned the opportunity to direct the mid-budget level, "Creed," after his directorial debut for "Fruitvale Station," which also won him numerous awards and critical admiration. "Black Panther" would give Coogler his first shot to director a potential blockbuster film.
While promoting "Creed" last month, Coogler said he believed that Marvel needed to hire a black director who could better connect with the character's cultural background.
"I think that there is a potential for a greater truth when a filmmaker comes from a particular culture that they're dealing with," he said. "That's not to say that a filmmaker can't work outside his or her cultural space. But I do believe that the opportunity for the film to have more nuance will come when you're looking at filmmakers that bring a little bit of that from their personal experience."
Marvel hired screenwriter Joe Robert Cole in October to pen the solo "Black Panther" movie. The studio also pursued "Selma" director Ava DuVernay to direct, but she chose to pass over creative control issues. She explained her reasoning at the 2015 BlogHer Conference over the summer.
"For me, it was a process of trying to figure out, are these people I want to go to bed with? Because it's really a marriage, and for this it would be three years," DuVernay said during her keynote speech (via Entertainment Weekly). "It'd be three years of not doing other things that are important to me. So it was a question of, is this important enough for me to do?"
Boseman will make his introduction as Black Panther in the next Marvel film, "Captain America: Civil War." He's featured prominently in the teaser trailer which dropped last month.
"Black Panther" is scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 16, 2018.
