Oh damn, is this super-secret Michael B. Jordan/Ryan Coogler project a vampire movie?
Tantalizing undead rumors have begun leaking out about a high-profile, very hush-hush movie that Jordan and Coogler just sold to Warner Bros.
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A few weeks back, we reported on news that Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan—who, between Creed and Black Panther, have had one of the most successful creative partnerships in recent Hollywood history—were shopping a new project around together. Details about this new film (Coogler’s first since bringing in more than $2 billion for Marvel with the Black Panther movies) was being kept very tightly under wraps, though, with the only real detail being that it was a “genre” movie. (Which could, y’know, be anything: Sports, sci-fi, horror, you name it. It pretty much just meant “not, like, Fruitvale Station 2.”)
None of which stopped the studios from pursuing the project pretty aggressively over the last month, culminating yesterday when Warner Bros. beat out Universal to sign a deal with the pair—including, reportedly, an unorthodox arrangement that allows Coogler to potentially get back ownership of the idea from the studio, which could be huge if this actually turns out to be a franchise-launcher.
Much more important for our purposes, though—i.e., figuring what the hell these guys are up to that has Hollywood hopping—is that news of the deal also included the tiniest smatterings of alleged info about the project, and folks, they are tantalizing. Specifically, the film is being (again, in very “alleged” language) described as a period thriller “involving the undead.” Oh, and at least one source has added that “it also contains anime influences,” presumably as a nod to the fact that Jordan is, well, a giant anime nerd.
And, yeah, now that you mention it, we would watch a movie about Michael B. Jordan either being, or fighting, a vampire, possibly (per sources) in the Jim Crow South. (We would also accept Michael B. Jordan: Mummy Hunter.) Even just as the fan-fiction this project currently exists at, that sounds pretty kick-ass. Hopefully we’ll know more about this one—which is to say, knowing anything about this one—some time soon, once Coogler and Jordan are ready to unzip their lips.