The Southern Gothic vampire film Sinners earned 16 Oscar nods this year, the most ever, breaking the tie previously held by La La Land, Titanic, and All About Eve with 14 nominations. Now, its director, Ryan Coogler, has his eye on a very different genre. And he’s taking inspiration from Rob Reiner.
Coogler told Deadline on Friday, “When Harry Met Sally is one of my movies that I think about with him. And to me, that’s such a solid romantic comedy that feels adult in whole, and it has eternal relevance.”
Coogler added, “Rest in peace, Rob Reiner.”
Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found killed at their Brentwood home in December.
The Oscar-nominated 1989 film was penned by Nora Ephron and starred Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal. The pair reunited as their classic characters in a campaign for Helmann’s last year that referenced the film’s famous fake orgasm scene.
Coogler said the rom-com’s staying power is justified, and something he’d like to replicate himself.
“When it comes to genres that I haven’t done that I would like to do, the best answer I think is all of them. I got kids, so I’m hoping to be around for a long time, and I’m hoping to work for as long as I can,” he explained.
Coogler’s Sinners, which he wrote and directed, became the surprise hit of 2025, grossing around $365.9M worldwide. The film, set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 and built around poignant themes of race, violence, and survival, couldn’t be more different than Reiner’s classic feel-good films. But Coogler does not want to be boxed in.
His next project, a TV reboot of the X-Files, will be another opportunity to branch out—but there’s more he’d like to do.
“There’s not a genre of movie that I don’t love,” he told Deadline. “So, I hope to work on all of them. I’d like to make a soup-to-nuts.”
Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally would strike just the right creative itch, he said. “I would love to make a rom-com that works like that one day.”
