LOS ANGELES -- Creed director Ryan Coogler is in talks to direct the Black Panther movie starring Chadwick Boseman for Disney/Marvel, Mashable has confirmed.
Coogler is riding high after Creed, starring Sylvester Stallone and Michael B. Jordan, was a bona-fide box office hit, making $42 million over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend. If the deal makes, Coogler would likely make Black Panther his next project, as the Marvel Phase Three film is dated for 2018 -- not quite enough time to squeeze in another project.
Coogler made a splash at Sundance in 2013 with Fruitvale Station, starring Jordan as the Bay Area resident Oscar Grant, who was fatally shot by BART Police officer in 2009. From there he pitched Creed, the story of Apollo Creed's out-of-wedlock son, and Warner Bros. went for it.
Boseman is set to first appear as T’Challa, prince of fictional African nation Wakanda, in Captain America: Civil War. Wakanda is the source of all the world's vibranium -- Marvel's made-up "strongest metal on Earth," from which Cap's shield and Panther's claws are made -- and will be the setting of Black Panther, where T’Challa must take over as king after his father's murder.
Selma director Ava DuVernay was initially approached for the job but ultimately declined it. Joe Robert Cole (2011's Amber Lake) is writing the script.
Alamo Drafthouse film blog BirthMoviesDeath first reported the news.