‘Thunderbolts’ Director Was Inspired by His Own Work With Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem

May 15, 2025 520 58 5

Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier recently explained how his early work with Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem inspired his approach to making the Marvel blockbuster. IMAX shared a clip of Schreier describing what inspired him to want to work in IMAX and he reflected on going to see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet while working on Kendrick and Keem’s music videos.

“Something that happened during the pandemic,” he explained. “I was shooting these music videos and they were these long oner [one-shot] videos. I did one for Baby Keem and did one for Kendrick. And we had this time on our hands and I went with pgLang down to IMAX headquarters because we all got to watch Tenet there together.”

He also revealed that they have IMAX versions of those videos and watched them at IMAX headquarters.

“And then we actually got to have this great experience of those music videos and the way they were filmed, and they’re all in a one in these really spacious environments,” said Schreier. “We made IMAX versions of these videos and got to watch them. And those are in the full 1.43 aspect ratio and play them at IMAX headquarters and to get to see them on that scale.”

Schreier directed Baby Keem’s “Hooligan” and “Issues” music videos. He also helmed Kendrick Lamar’s acclaimed 2022 “We Cry Together” short film, which co-starred Taylour Paige. The director gave credit to pgLang and IMAX for helping spark his vision for Thunderbolts. According to Variety, the hit superhero flick remains No. 1 at the box office, earning $33.1 million in its second weekend of release. Thunderbolts has made $128.5 million in North America and $272 million globally.

“So that was where it really started,” Schreier shared. “Talking to those guys about that and all of the proprietary stuff that they have down there that you can do to get things to be practical on that scale and really resonate, and then getting to come back with a whole movie in hand to work on — it was really special.”