It’s a personal story set in the world of high school American football in my home town that I’ve been wanting to make for a long time.

That was the reply from director Ryan Coogler, in a Cannes Film Festival interview, after he was asked to talk about his next project.

Coogler’s feature film debut, the much-discussed Fruitvale Station, screened at the festival where it won the Prix de l’avenir (a “Future” award). The Weinstein Company picked up the film after its Sundance Film Festival debut in January, with plans to release it late this summer.

It may not be widely-known that Oakland native Coogler, is a former athlete, who played college football on a scholarship at Sacramento State University, where he would eventually fall in love with film. 

So, as he states, his next film is one that will hit close to home – a personal story he calls it. Potentially autobiographical.

We look forward to learning more.

You can read the full interview HERE in which Coogler also reveals his cinema influences, including “Coppola, Scorsese, Spielberg, and Kubrick […] Truffaut, Godard and Kurosawa,” as he says.