July has been an important month for director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan. Their film, "Fruitvale Station," made its nationwide debut to rave reviews. Now, riding the success of a first film together, the pair is reportedly in talks to direct and star in "Creed," a spin-off of Sylvestor Stallone’s breakout hit "Rocky."
MGM is setting Ryan Coogler to direct Creed, and the studio is in early talks with Coogler’sFruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan to play the grandson of Apollo Creed in a continuation of theRocky saga that Coogler is going to write with Aaron Covington. Sylvester Stallone will reprise Rocky Balboa as a retired fighter-turned-trainer. This comes in the wake of a strong summer platform opening for Fruitvale Station, the film that won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Awards at Sundance, and captured Prize Of The Future at the Cannes Film Festival, where Coogler and Jordan were the toast of the Croisette. Coogler intends for this to be his directorial follow-up to Fruitvale Station so the intention is to make it happen quickly.
…The intention is for Jordan to play the grandson of Apollo Creed (played in the early movies by Carl Weathers). Raised in an upper-crust home thanks to the ring riches earned by his grandfather, the young man doesn’t have to box and his family doesn’t want him to. Yet, he has the natural instinct and gifts and potential that made his grandfather the heavyweight champion until Rocky Balboa took his crown in 1979?s Rocky II. Creed’s grandson needs a mentor and turns to Balboa, who is out of boxing completely and not eager to return.
Coogler reportedly intends to dive deep into the mythology of the first three "Rocky" films and move the story forward from there.