Avengers: Infinity War - 10 Things We Learned From The Directors' Roundtable

4. Ryan Coogler Screened Black Panther For Francis Ford Coppola

One of the more unexpected stories from the roundtable sees Ryan Coogler discussing the time he not only met legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, but even got to show him a work-in-progress version of Black Panther:

"There was a little bit of Hamlet there, clearly. But also, we're looking at The Godfather. And it was crazy because I got a chance to meet Francis. He watched the film at the ranch while we were still with friends and family, and...I was sick with nerves. I'm out of my mind, man.

After the movie was over...he was giving me notes faster than I could write. He just started naming all of these movies, and all of these books that I needed to go read...He was like, 'Have you ever seen Brigadoon?' And I was like, 'No, I've never seen Brigadoon', and he was like, 'Woah man, you've gotta see Brigadoon because you've got this thing going on in this', and he said, 'Have you ever read Shahnameh?', and I'm like 'Shala-waht?', and he's like, 'You've gotta read Shahnameh, it's this Persian story about kings who had sons who have to inherit the throne', and it was a big inspiration for him with The Godfather.

And for us, we kind of saw Chadwick's character as Michael, his father was Don, and he's got to fill the shoes of this great man who's also his father. So, [Coppola's] just rattling off all of this stuff, and you realise, yeah man, everybody pulls from everything."