Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler's movies include both Black Panther films and Creed. His latest fillm, Sinners, is a vampire thriller about twins, both played by Michael B. Jordan, opening a juke joint in 1930s Mississippi. The film explores race, faith, and American history through the lens of horror. Also, Noah Wyle talks about his starring role in the MAX series The Pitt, about life at a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room. He also played a doctor on the long-running hit ER. Plus, contributor Carolina Miranda reviews Laila Lalami's suspenseful new novel, The Dream Hotel.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Who is Ryan Coogler and what is his new film 'Sinners' about?
What stories you heard? How haints work. They switch places with the soul of a man. But vampires is different. Maybe the worst kind. The soul gets stuck in the body. Can't rejoin the ancestors. Curse to live here with all this hate. Can't even feel the warmth of a sunrise. OK. Can we bring them back? Maybe if I kill the ones that made them this way. Smoke.
They have a connection, but they live on, even if the one that made them is killed. The best thing we can do for him is free his spirit from this curse. They gotta be killed one by one.
How the hell do we do that?
Sunlight.
I wouldn't state that hard. Ryan Coogler says Sinners is also a tribute to his late Uncle James, who first introduced him to the blues. When he was a kid, Coogler would soak up his uncle's stories about Mississippi as old Delta Blues records spun in the background.
Coogler's debut into the film world happened in 2013 with Fruitvale Station, which chronicled the final hours of Oscar Grant, a young black man killed by police in Oakland. Since then, he's become the highest-grossing black filmmaker in history and the youngest director to helm a billion-dollar movie with Black Panther.
He decided to press pause on making Black Panther 3 to take the risk of making Sinners. Ryan Coogler, welcome to Fresh Air and congrats on this film. I have seen it twice and I enjoyed it very much.
I appreciate you having me. I'm really thrilled to be here.
So, Ryan, you put Black Panther 3 on hold. That is a billion dollar franchise, as I mentioned, to make this film in a moment when it seems like Hollywood is kind of playing it safe to sequels and remakes. What made you say this is the story I have to tell now? And even if it means stepping away from the success of something like a Marvel machine, did that feel like a risk?
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