Amid rave early reviews, Sinners seems to be another hit from the creative vision of acclaimed director Ryan Coogler. While the feature-length project is an original story, the filmmaker says that one aspect of his movie was influenced by a beloved animated character from the Shrek spinoof, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
Speaking on Get Rec’d w/ Straw Hat Goofy (via The Art of Dialogue on X), Coogler revealed that The Last Wish‘s villain, Death, inspired the creation of the vampires in Sinners. According to the filmmaker, Death’s demeanor and presentation were a good starting point for him when he conceptualized the vampires for his supernatural thriller. «So I talk about influences in this movie. That’s a massive one I love,» he said. «Think about the villain Death, think about his defining features [the eyes], think about his demeanor.»
Death, voiced by Wagner Moura in The Last Wish, is a white wolf that was presumed to be a bounty hunter in the Shrek spinoff. However, Death soon reveals his identity to Antonio Banderas’ central character, wanting to kill Puss for wasting eight of his nine lives. Sinners‘ vampires are similarly mischievous and appear as normal people who Michael B. Jordan’s characters, Smoke and Stack, fratonize with when returning home.
Coogler confirmed that The Last Wish‘s influence was amplified by artist Louis Gonzales, a long-time Pixar employee who worked with him on both Black Panther films. Also starring Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson, Wunmi Mosaku and Omar Benson Miller, Sinners is set in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, where Smoke and Stack return to try and escape past trauma, only to face unprecedented evil.
Sinners Has Special Meaning For Coogler
Sinners is a passion project for Coogler, who opted to make the film before Black Panther 3 because of how personal it is to him, inspired by his late uncle who grew up in Mississippi and loved blues music. Like The Last Wish, Sinners has been a huge critical hit. The upcoming flick’s perfect Rotten Tomatoes score makes it the highest-rated vampire film by critics in the review aggregator’s history.
Along with critics, Oscar-winning director Spike Lee also praised Sinners as one of the best recent movies he’s seen following an advanced screening. The film, which has a budget of between $90 million to $100 million, is expected to make a solid opening weekend return of around $40 million domestically.
Coogler’s latest film is the fifth he’s done alongside Jordan, making previous critically and commercially successful projects such as Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and its sequel, Wakanda Forever. Their success together motivated Warner Bros. to acquire Sinners‘ distribution rights in early 2024 amid a bidding war.
Sinners opens in theaters on April 18.
