Ryan Coogler's grandfather inspired his ambitious new vampire movie 'Sinners'

Ryan Coogler has dazzled audiences with big-budget Marvel movies (the "Black Panther" franchise), introduced a new generation to the Rocky Balboa saga ( "Creed," "Creed II"), and painted a devastatingly human portrait of a real-life tragedy ("Fruitvale Station"), but his newest film unlocks his true potential.

Coogler's fifth feature, "Sinners," marks the first time the director is working with a completely original concept, and it's an ambitious, genre-hopping ride worthy of all the early praise (the film has a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication).

The film, which Coogler also wrote, tells the story of identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan), who leave their posts as muscle in the 1930s Chicago underworld and return to their home state of Mississippi to run a juke joint. Everything is going according to plan on opening night, with top-notch blues musicians and smooth tasting hooch, until a trio of vampires shows up and turns everything upside down.

But even as the movie veers sharply from period piece to vampire flick (blood-sucking included), in Coogler's hands, "Sinners" is more than a thrilling genre movie. With eye-popping cinematography of the Mississippi Delta, a moving score from Coogler's longtime collaborator Ludwig Göransson, and subplots focusing on religion and the generational influence of the blues, "Sinners" is chock-full of well-executed big ideas. It's Hollywood filmmaking on an epic scale — and the secret sauce is that it's grounded in a personal, heartfelt story.

In the latest interview in Business Insider's "Director's Chair" series, Coogler discusses how the project came to be, what led to the movie's memorable music sequence, and what motivated him to make a deal with Warner Bros. so he'll one day own the rights to "Sinners."

Business Insider: You've spoken about "Sinners" being a love letter to your grandfather and uncle. How did you go from celebrating family to vampires and the blues?

Ryan Coogler: I never knew my grandfather. He died shortly after my parents got married. He was from Mississippi. Born there, raised there. Then he moved to Oakland and married my grandmother who was from Texas. My grandmother had two little sisters and one of her younger sisters married a man who was from Mississippi, a different part, and that was my Uncle James.

My Uncle James, for a large portion of my life, was the oldest male member of my family. What he loved to do was three things: listening to Delta Blues music, he loved drinking all types of whiskey, and he loved the San Francisco Giants, watching them on TV and listening to them on the radio. So if you went and spent time with him he was doing one or all three of those things.

I loved my uncle. I associate that music with him. He passed away in 2015, and after that, I oftentimes found myself playing blues records to remind myself of him. And that act of listening to that music and feeling he was there with me is kind of what inspired the period setting and the blues. And that is why the movie is so personal. 

It's so personal, in fact, that you made a deal with Warner Bros. to get the rights to the film in 25 years. The reason for that is because this is a story of what Smoke and Stack do at the start of the movie — open a juke joint in the Jim Crow South. The idea of Black ownership motivated you, correct?

Yeah. That was the reason for that ask. That was actually the only motivation.

Do you have the rights to any of your other movies? Is this a first time for you?

No. It's the first time.

Do you want to continue owning the rights to your movies going forward?

No. It was this specific project.

One of the movie's most memorable moments is a sequence where everyone is dancing in the juke joint, and suddenly, past, present, and future musical influences of the blues appear — a guitarist playing an electric guitar, a DJ on turntables, ancient chants. How long had you been thinking about doing that?

It was in the original script, but the specifics of it, the nature of it, I came up with while I was writing. So it existed in every form of the screenplay but it was a concept that came to be. Like, it wasn't in the outline. I was writing the script, and I was listening to the music, trying to conjure a time, and thinking how I would use that music. I would think about my uncle and wonder what my uncle was thinking of when he was listening to it. 

Was that sequence always ambitious from the start?

The ambition evolved as I was researching it and digging into it. I realized the epic nature of the story as I researched it. At first, I thought it was small. As I researched and dug into blues music and how it was developed and why, when I got to Mississippi and stood on some plantations, that's where the form was born. These people whose parents were enslaved and were living in back-breaking societal conditions created an art form that was so incredible that it transcended the planet. We are still making incarnations of that music. And so my mind kind of blew up and I saw the movie showing that creation. 

There was a report that the post-production process on "Sinners" was longer than usual because you shot on film and there aren't many film labs left.

That's not the whole reason. We wanted to make film prints but we also wanted to make the movie in the best way possible. We actually did this fast. 

Are you concerned about shooting on film going forward? There are definitely fewer labs than there were 10 or even five years ago.

There are enough filmmakers who believe in the format that I have faith. I actually hope there's a resurgence. My first movie, "Fruitvale Station," was shot on film. It was shot on Super 16mm, so the format has always mattered to me. And I was so happy to get back to it. But with the epic nature of the story, I was also happy to shoot large format. 

I was going to ask about shooting on IMAX. Was that something you thought about doing back in the script stage?

No. When I first came up with the concept of "Sinners" I thought we were going to shoot it on Super 16mm. I thought it was going to be a down-and-dirty movie. 

Oh, so originally "Sinners" had a grimy, dirty South feel?

Exactly, bro. But this was before I went to Mississippi and really learned about the story I was telling. During that time I realized the story has to be epic and mythic. That's when an executive at Warner Bros. reached out and asked if I considered large format. And he was asking from a business sense, seeing how complicated it's become to convince folks to come out of their house and watch something that's original. So he was thinking about it from that side. But as soon as he said that, it unlocked something in me. It was the missing link to what the movie needed. 

I mean, America is a fucking beautiful landscape. It's gorgeous, and the natural landscapes totally dictate the people you are interacting with. The Mississippi Delta felt that way. It is the single most African place I've ever been to that wasn't Africa in terms of the feeling that I had. The epic feel of that flat pastoral landscape. You stand in some of the places in the Delta and it's so flat you felt you could see the Earth bending on the horizon. 

Are you hooked on shooting on IMAX cameras going forward?

I loved the experience. I think it's something I could see myself definitely doing in the future. It's incredibly addictive.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

"Sinners" is in theaters now.