Sinners made history as the first horror film to get an A Cinemascore, but filmmaker Ryan Coogler was not so sure about his Great Depression-era vampire epic when he pitched it to Michael B. Jordan.
During an appearance on Good Hang with Amy Poehler, the writer-director said, “How it ended up working: I was trying to get the screenplay together, ’cause Mike’s busy, and I didn’t wanna say, ‘Hey, I got a thing,’ and then have him waiting for a script; I didn’t need him blowing my phone up, like, ‘Hey, where it’s at?’ But what ended up happening was he called me and pitched me something while I was working on this for him.”
Coogler had to say no to his longtime collaborator’s proposed project, which left Michael wondering what the reason behind the no was.
The Black Panther director continued, “And at first I was like, ‘Mike, I can’t work on that right now.’ And he got upset [laughs], like, ‘Hey man, what’s going on? I wanna get this going. There’s something you’re not telling me.’”
He continued, “I’m like, ‘Look, I’m working on a thing, I’m bringing this to you, this is what it is: it’s twins, it’s period, it’s vampires. And I remember how he reacted ’cause he just got quiet for a long time [chuckles], and I was like, ‘Oh shit, did I lose him?’ And he’s like, ‘Man, you know what, that sound pretty interesting, man.'”
Sinners went on to make big bucks at the box office, grossing $368 million worldwide and garnering rave reviews. It has also been getting various award nominations and is expected to get Academy Award noms as well.
