'Bitter Root' Movie Coming From Producer Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler is lending his talents to another comic book property. Legendary has tapped Coogler to produce a Bitter Root movie along with Zinzi Evans and Sev Ohanian. The film is based on the Image Comics series created by David F. Walker, Sanford Greene, and Chuck Brown, which focuses on a family of monster hunters living during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.Deadline broke the news about the Bitter Root movie adaptation, which has a damn cool premise:

Set during the vibrant Harlem Renaissance of 1924, Bitter Root focuses on a fractured family of once-great monster hunters who must face an unimaginable evil that descends upon New York City. For generations, the Sangeryes have hunted and cured those infected by a supernatural force that feeds off the prejudice of the era, transforming human beings into hideous monsters. But their heyday has faded and with most of the family dead, and the surviving Sangeryes at odds between saving or killing these creatures, the remaining Sangeryes must overcome the wounds of the past in the hopes of thwarting the invasion.

Coogler is still getting ready to direct Black Panther 2, but in the meantime, he'll be producing this, along with Space Jam 2. Fellow Bitter Root producer Zinzi Evans is Coogler's wife, who is becoming more and more active in producing alongside him.

Bitter Root was first published by Image comics in 2018, and featured an all-black creative team. Per the Washington Post, the comic came about when Image Comics approached artist Sanford Greene about creating a new series. Greene had been developing a story with his friend Chuck Brown about an African American family that hunted monsters in Harlem, but they didn't have a full idea at first.

"Not only was it not fleshed out, we just didn't even have a name," Greene told the Post. "We just had a basic idea of, hey, something with the Harlem Renaissance."

Greene then brought in veteran comic book writer David F. Walker to help flesh out the idea. "Chuck had an initial idea and some plot points and some scenes in mind but there wasn't a true story there that had been fleshed out yet," Walker said. "I came onboard and rolled up my sleeves and started asking a lot of questions that I don't necessarily think they had really thought about."

This sounds like a cool project overall, and I'm very curious to see who ends up starring in, and also directing, the film.