Ryan Coogler's new movie from Warner Brother's Pictures Sinners hits theaters today. He's known for many popular movies in recent years like Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the Creed movies. He virtually called into the Bobby Bones Show to share some stories from his time directing.
Bobby Bones watched Sinners and he told Coogler he feels like he created a new horror genre with this one. Coogler said movies are similar to music in that the genres change over time, which he related to rock and blues music in particular. Horror movies now are going to have elements of other genres milled into it. Coogler typically starts writing movies with an outline, but with Sinners he started with the character of Sammy. He created this concept with his Uncle James in mind, who passed in 2015. All his uncle did was listen to Blues music, so that's really where this movie was born.
The concept of the movie is if you keep dancing with the devil, he's going to follow you home. Bones also shared that there are vampires in the movie, which wasn't a spoiler to Coogler. He does think spoilers are harming the theatrical aspect of movies, but knows it's coming from the social media culture. Noting spoilers are a product of the information age so movies aren't the only thing experiencing this. On the film, Coogler has Michael B. Jordan playing a set of twins, which Bones wanted to know how that even works. It isn't actually all digital. It's Jordan 90 to 95% of the time, he will play both roles so they would shoot each scene twice. They did employ a twin double that's the same build and complexion as Jordan so he has someone to act across and give him lines back. They're also utilizing new technology on Sinners with this twin role specifically, it's called the Techno Doggy. It was developed for this film so they don't have to reshoot too many scenes, it helps them avoid the double on screen. Then they utilize stitching technology to put a scene together.
Coogler learned fast on his first movie that everyone responds differently to styles of management, some people have no ego, while some have big ones. He acknowledges that everyone is working long hours and missing their families. For him as a filmmaker, it's important to him to get to know his actors because he can't work with strangers. If he has a new person he hasn't worked with, he will spend a few hours working to understand who they are and their lives. His first love was actually football, and he vividly remembers the coaches who made him feel good and the coaches who made him feel like crap. For the good coaches, he always worked his butt off to perform well so he wants to treat actors the same way in hopes of a similar working relationship. Coogler and Jordan have become good friends over the years, they first worked together on Fruitvale Station, it was Jordan's first time being the star of a movie. Coogler witnessed Jordan maintain his kindness, humility, and work ethic and he's stayed the same way as a global superstar, which is rare.
As for the music on the film, Coogler shared they had to find the right kid to play one of the lead roles to make this movie work so they did a global search. They looked all over for actors who could sing and singers who could act, but then they found Miles in Brooklyn, New York. He's a musician that's been on tour with the artist H.E.R. and it's his first time acting in a feature film. He did an audition and his voice was perfect, but he's a pianist so he had to teach himself guitar to act in the movie.