While Sly Stallone was celebrating his Oscar nomination, his director, Ryan Coogler, who was not recognised by the Academy, was at the AARP Awards as Creed was named Best Intergenerational Movie. How’s that for diversity? He not only gave us a new Rocky, with a black future, but also represented maturity – which is not typically a treasured quality in Hollywood. Given what Ryan’s said about his dad, about how he conceived of Creed because of his father’s declining health, inspired by how they used to watch Rocky movies together, well, look at his face – that’s one of the reasons he’s so excited.
It will only be Sly however repping Creed at the Oscars on February 28th. With Ryan’s endorsement. Sly revealed yesterday that when the nominations were announced and the #OscarsSoWhite controversy began dominating the conversation, he reached out to Ryan for guidance:
“I remember I spoke with Ryan Coogler when this happened and I said, ‘How do you want to handle this? Because I feel like you are responsible for me being here.’ I said, ‘If you don’t want me to go, I won’t.’ He said, ‘I want you to go.’ That’s the kind of guy he is. He wanted me to stand up for the film.”
Creed, as previously mentioned, was my favourite movie of 2015. Ryan Coogler came up with the story. He co-wrote the screenplay. He directed the film, only his second feature. His third? Black Panther. And he’s not even 30 years old!
Source
