![]() Though Morrison didn’t work with Coogler on his next film due to a production schedule conflict, she would rejoin him to shoot Black Panther. The most obvious, of course, is his work with Jordan, who was known largely for his TV work (in particular on The Wire and Friday Night Lights) before he starred in Fruitvale Station and attracted critical attention.įruitvale Station was also shot by Rachel Morrison, who would go on to become the first woman ever nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar for her work on Dee Rees’s 2017 film Mudbound. It also signaled the start of a number of fruitful artistic collaborations for Coogler. The movie starts with the actual cameraphone footage of Grant’s shooting, so the sense of dread builds throughout the film: as we watch Grant go throughout his day - play with his young daughter, celebrate his mother’s birthday, revisit his time in jail, interact with strangers - we know that this day is his last, and so his death comes as a particularly emotional gut punch.įruitvale won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and went on to do well in theatrical release (renamed Fruitvale Station). Jordan - who has starred in all of Coogler’s features so far - plays Grant on the last day of his life, in a story that Coogler constructed after spending time with Grant’s family, many of whom Grant saw hours before he was killed. It’s a movie that’s both named for and embodies a place, and that lends an extra specificity and weight to its story. That Coogler feels deeply connected to his hometown is evident: The movie goes to great lengths to create the feel of the Oakland and San Francisco metropolitan areas, a move that makes perfect sense given that Grant died in a BART station that became the locus of protests afterward. Also, age-wise, he and I were born in the same year, so I had a really close perspective on what it’s like to be that age, that ethnicity, from that area, and to have moved in and out of all those similar places. As he told the Dissolve:īeing from the Bay Area, obviously it affected me. ![]() The shooting was captured on camera by several people, and the light sentence received by the officer who shot Grant sparked outrage and protests.Ĭoogler was attracted to telling the story because he felt an affinity with Grant. ![]() It’s the story of Oscar Grant, an unarmed black man who was shot in the back at point-blank range by a white police officer in Oakland while returning from San Francisco on New Year’s Eve in 2008. He took his first feature, then simply titled Fruitvale, to Sundance. In 2013, Coogler was 26 years old, a former college football player and a graduate of USC’s film school, where he made several short films. Fruitvale Station (2013)Ĭoogler’s first feature, Fruitvale Station, came out of nowhere. But it’s worth looking back at his two earlier films, which show that some of what distinguishes Black Panther has been part of his work from the start. Clearly, he’s a force to be reckoned with.Ĭoogler’s success with Black Panther both secures his place in film history as a wunderkind and ensures that he’ll continue to be one of today’s most sought-after young directors. Coogler turned his $200 million production budget into a movie that made $400 million worldwide on its opening weekend, with raves from audiences and critics alike. Ryan Coogler’s rise through Hollywood is best described as “meteoric.” Before being selected to direct Black Panther, the director, now 31 years old, had only made two feature films: Fruitvale Station, which won accolades at Sundance in 2013, and Creed, the seventh installment in the Rocky series, which garnered rave reviews in 2015.ĭisney’s tentpole properties have been selecting young directors who cut their teeth in independent film to helm major blockbusters (like Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok and Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi), but even by those standards Coogler is a newbie.īut it worked.
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