THE SUCCESS STORY OF RYAN COOGLER: Director of BLACK PANTHER
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Helo everyone, I am pretty sure you all have seen the latest movie produced by Marvel Studio called the Black Panther.
The movie was one of the most anticipated movie and without doubts, came out as one of the movies produced this year. A lot of wonderful reviews have been put out by many who have seen the movie and if you haven’t seen this movie, then try keeping a date with it and you won’t regret you did.
Success is not a straight way route and many who have threaded the route to success always have a story to tell and Ryan Coogler, the director of the famous Black Panther, isn’t left out in this as he has his own success story which would serve as a motivation to all of us.
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Growing up, Ryan was so much in love with the comics and his favourite was The X-Men. He would race home every day after school to read his favourite comic. This actually kept him going for a long time as it always made his day.
He grew up in Oakland where blacks weren’t totally accepted and X-Men’s struggle for public acceptance always reminded him of his growing up days in Oakland. Most of all, Ryan loved the X-Men because of a black mutant called Bishop because he was the only superhero who looked like him and that really excited Ryan.
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One day, Ryan went to his local comic store in search of other black superheros, and that was how he found the black panther, King T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda. Ryan would spend hours in class daydreaming of the mythical African Kingdom of Wakanda oblivious of the fact that decades later he would bring that very same story to the big screen.
Young and broke, Ryan lived out of his car during his first semester at film school and had to work as a security personnel at a night club to make ends meet.
One night, he heard that an unarmed black man had been killed by the local police at a nearby train station and that really broke his heart. ’’Why would anyone want to kill an unarmed black man’’; he thought to himself. Devastated, Ryan wondered what if that had been one of his friend or even him that night.
Oscar Grant’s, the black man who was killed, death sparked protest in the city and inspired Ryan’s first feature film Fruitvale Station. Ryan said that the most difficult part was re-watching Oscar’s death scene while editing the film. It was a scene he couldn’t behold. The film went on to receive instant recognition from critics and festivals across the country.
During this time, Ryan’s dad was suffering from a mysterious sickness that left him bedridden. He would sit beside his father and watch Sylvester Stallone’s Movie Rocky to keep his spirit up. The story that the movie Rocky portrayed, gave him and his dad hope during dark times and Ryan wondered how a fearless hero like rocky would handle an illness like his dad’s.
So Ryan sketched out a Rocky spinoff and begged Sylvester Stallone’s team for a meeting. Stallone was quite hesitant about the spinoff at first and struggled to understand Ryan’s vision. After slight hesitation, Stallone decided to have the meeting with Ryan not knowing that his role in the movie would get him an Oscar nomination.
While shooting the movie, Ryan got a call from Marvel Studio that would change his life. They wanted his favourite superhero movie, Black Panther. This was a dream come through, but Ryan had his doubts.
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He decided to drive down to his childhood comic store and clear his head. He remembered how excited he used to be when he was a kid and when he first discovered black superheros, and now he had the chance to give that same feeling to millions of other kids so he accepted and was ready to share his dreams of wakanda with the rest of the world.
Before shooting, he toured Africa to learn more about African culture and rituals for the film and worked tirelessly till 3a.m most nights, crashing on a sofa I his office for naps.
Ryan’s hard work and sleepless nights paid off when Black Panther became the third fast grossing movie of its time. Ranking in over $263 million in its first 5 days.
Ryan’s journey reminds us that when passion meets opportunity, success will always follow.
Your greatest responsibility is to yourself. If the work you are doing doesn’t mean something to you. It is not going to be good work.