The director talks with the staff writer Jelani Cobb about his influences and mentors, and how he made a vampire story “uniquely personal.”

The New Yorker Radio Hour

[email protected] (WNYC Studios and The New Yorker)

Ryan Coogler on “Sinners”

APR 15, 202522 MIN
The New Yorker Radio Hour

Ryan Coogler on “Sinners”

APR 15, 202522 MIN

Description

Ryan Coogler began his career in film as a realist with “Fruitvale Station,” which tells the story of a true-to-life tragedy about a police killing in the Bay Area. He then directed the class drama of “Creed,” a celebrated “Rocky” sequel. But then he moved to the epic fantasy of Marvel’s hit “Black Panther” movies. In his newest project, “Sinners,” Coogler continues to deal with themes of history, faith, and race, but through the lens of horror. Jelani Cobb sat down with the director to discuss setting the film in the South, the mythology of the blues, and how he made a vampire story his own.