When I saw a hooded Wolf (Wagner Moura) chase after the adorable Puss (Antonio Banderas) with twin sickles like a hidden character in Soulcalibur in 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, I did not think, “Yeah, this is perfect for a live-action prestige horror film.” That’s probably why I’m not an Academy Award-nominated director whose films have grossed over $1 billion and Ryan Coogler is, because his latest movie Sinners is not only one of the most anticipated movies ever but also wouldn’t be the movie it is without, to hear him tell it, the “massive” influence of the DreamWorks Animation film.
Coogler recently chatted with the Get Rec’d podcast and revealed that the villain in Sinners is inspired by the Wolf from Puss in Boots in the most obvious way. “Think about the villain. Think about his defining features,” Coogler explained. Both the animated Wolf and Sinners’ villain Remmick (Jack O’Connell) have ominous red eyes. So, when Remmick eventually makes it into your nightmares after you catch Sinners, just know you’re pretty much being terrified by a man based in part on a digital wolf.
This isn’t the first, or even close to the weirdest, inspiration for a movie character. The tentacle texture of Pirates of the Caribbean’s fearsome Davy Jones was inspired by a coffee-stained cup. Christian Bale’s psychotically charismatic demeanor as Patrick Bateman in American Psycho was inspired by Tom Cruise’s “intense friendliness” during an interview on Late Night with David Letterman. Even the bug-eyed design of WALL-E’s titular character was inspired by an epiphany director Andrew Stanton had after playing around with binoculars during a baseball game.
In the end, inspirations for some of the most indelible pieces of art can derive from ostensibly meaningless moments in life. Or, as it turns out, from blockbuster animated films.
