Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Gave Ryan Coogler’s Villain a New Life

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish isn’t just creating an existential crisis for viewers: For Ryan Coogler, it’s giving him inspiration for his next movie. If only all of us could see a movie about a cat contemplating his existence through Coogler’s eyes. In an interview on the Get Rec’d podcast, Coogler shared with host Juju Green how the latest Puss in Boots adventure became a key element in his upcoming film, Sinners. “Think about the villain. Think about his defining features,” Coogler said to Green. “Think about his demeanor.” Wolf, Puss in Boots’s big villain, had piercing red eyes; Sinners’s villain Remmick (Jack O’Connell) has piercing red eyes. Wolf like to presumably bite others; Remmick is a vampire, so that trait’s a given.

Dreamworks’ most famous cat isn’t the only inspiration for Coogler. He told the San Francisco Chronicle that he “wanted the movie to feel like a song,” so he used Metallica’s “One” as his muse. “It starts off intense, then gets melodic,” he explained. “And going somewhere just f— crazy. But by the time you’re finished, it was clear you were always going to get there.”

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