Director Ryan Coogler’s feature film debut Fruitvale Station took the Sundance Film Festival by storm earlier this year, picking up a handful of awards and becoming one of the most talked-about films of the fest.  The Weinstein Company quickly swooped in and picked the film up for distribution, and the true-life story started opening in theaters a couple of weekends ago ahead of what’s sure to be an intense awards season run.  Now it appears that Coogler is ready to team up with his Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan sooner rather than later, as the two are in early talks to make a Rocky spinoff film focusing on the grandson of Carl Weathers Apollo Creed.  Hit the jump for more.

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Deadline reports that MGM has tapped Coogler to direct Creed, with Jordan in early talks to topline the film as the grandson of Apollo Creed, the fighter who defeated Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in Rocky and also appeared in next three pics.  Stallone is apparently poised to reprise his role as Rocky in this new spinoff, but the main focus will be on the younger Creed.  While this may seem like one of many high-profile projects that Coogler was offered in the wake of Fruitvale’s success, this whole thing was apparently Coogler’s idea to begin with.

Having cracked this idea himself, the filmmaker met with Stallone and pitched his take on Creed, and after putting everything together with MGM, the spinoff is now slated to be Coogler’s next project.  He will pen with script with Aaron Covington, and Stallone is onboard to produce alongside Rocky producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, as well as Kevin King.

Creed will follow the timeline of the previous Rocky films pretty closely, as the story revolves around Creed’s grandson being raised “in an upper-crust home” where he doesn’t have to box thanks to the monetary benefits of his grandfather.  However, he possesses a natural instinct and seeks out a mentor to help him train, which is where Stallone’s Balboa comes in.  Jordan is phenomenal in Fruitvale Station, so I’m totally down with the idea of him leading yet another film.  Coogler has showed tremendous promise with his debut, so I’m interested to see him tackle the Rocky saga.

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Image via The Weinstein Company