For “Creed III,” the ninth film in the “Rocky” universe, Michael B. Jordan stepped into the director’s chair for the first time, taking helm of the franchise previously led by his…
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
For “Creed III,” the ninth film in the “Rocky” universe, Michael B. Jordan stepped into the director’s chair for the first time, taking helm of the franchise previously led by his longtime collaborator Ryan Coogler.
“Mike, you’re ready to step behind the camera,” Jordan recalled producer Irwin Winkler telling him.
Jordan shared this during a virtual Variety Streaming Room “Creed III” conversation moderated by senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay, in which he was joined by Winkler, producer Elizabeth Raposo and writers Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin. The exclusive conversation was presented by Amazon MGM Studios.
Jordan felt prepared to direct in part due to his familiarity with his character Adonis, having played the boxer in the previous “Creed” films.
“Nobody knew Adonis more than me, and I had a clear point of view and perspective that I wanted Adonis and the Creed family to have in this movie,” Jordan told Tangcay.
The third film introduces a new character, Damian (Jonathan Majors), Adonis’s childhood friend who was recently released from prison and was a former boxing prodigy. The team discussed the process of bringing him into the narrative.
“We all began talking, and I think that Ryan had the seed of that idea and that character,” Baylin said. “And then collaboratively through Keenan and I, our conversations with Michael, and everyone really wanting to push this story in the third movie into a new direction that was really about Adonis and about Adonis’s relationships. I think the first two films in the franchise did a really amazing job of utilizing the iconography from the previous ‘Rocky’ films and those relationships. But I think everyone here was interested in trying to do something that was very personal to Adonis in a new story.”
Jordan shared how he brought emotion to the fight scenes, which were also inspired by his love of Japanese animation. He likened his vision for Damian and Adonis’ face off to an anime trope in which two characters who are physically fighting are also shown having an emotional conversation in a quiet “void” space.
“I take pride in this movie being a quadrilingual film in the sense of, there’s English, there’s Spanish, you have ASL — and then you have fighting, which is our fourth language in this movie,” Jordan said. “And in that fight, at a time, I was going to treat the punches as dialogue. We had subtitles at one point at the bottom of the screen, and we went back and forth of if that was going to be too distracting for the audience to read…We were like, ah, maybe not that, but the essence and the spirit of that is this Greek play in a way. You have this performance art that’s going on and it’s just raw emotion.”
Raposo explained why she believes the film resonates so deeply with audiences.
“No matter what issues have come your way, you can overcome that thing and whatever that may be — it may be something incredibly challenging, it may be something that’s just been challenging for you — but no matter what you have faced, you can overcome it. And I think that is, for me, as the viewer and a fan of this movie, that is what I think its universal message really is.”
For Winkler, he believes the relatable story all goes back to one thing: “Family.”
Watch the conversation above.