BLUMHOUSE
Known mostly as a comedian, if Jordan Peele’s transition from his popular comedy sketch series (“Key & Peele”) to serious horror movie-making seems sudden, for the filmmaker it’s been long in-the-making. “I’ve been spending the first half of my career focusing on comedy but my goal, in all honesty, is to write and direct horror movies,” Jordan Peele told Playboy in an interview with the magazine 2 years ago. “I have one that I’m working on with Darko Entertainment called ‘Get Out’ – I don’t want to say too much about it, but it is one of the very, very few horror movies that does jump off of racial fears. That to me is a world that hasn’t been explored. Specifically, the fears of being a black man today. The fears of being any person who feels like they’re a stranger in any environment that is foreign to them. It deals with a protagonist that I don’t see in horror movies.”
Nothing says “horror” in America (much of the world, really) than these 2 words: “black man.” Recent news headlines tell the sordid tale.
Peele added in a previous press release in 2015: “Like comedy, horror has an ability to provoke thought and further the conversation on real social issues in a very powerful way… ‘Get Out’ takes on the task of exploring race in America, something that hasn’t really been done within the genre since ‘Night of the Living Dead’ 47 years ago. It’s long overdue.”
And of course, the movie he talked about making 2 years ago is now set to premiere; the Blumhouse Productions “Get Out” will be released by Universal Pictures this Friday, February 24, 2017; it’s Peele’s feature directorial debut.
UNIVERSAL
British actor Daniel Kaluuya and “Girls” co-star Allison Williams, star in the movie that follows a young African American man who visits his white girlfriend’s family estate, and becomes ensnared in a more sinister real reason for the invitation. Now that Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with Missy (Catherine Keener) and Dean (Bradley Whitford). At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Written and directed by Peele, “Get Out” is produced by Blumhouse’s Jason Blum, as well as Sean McKittrick, Peele and Edward H. Hamm Jr.
The film also stars Caleb Landry Jones, Milton “Lil Rel” Howery, Betty Gabriel, Marcus Henderson and Keith Stanfield.
Last fall (on September 9), Peele appeard on producer Blumhouse’s podcast titled “Shock Waves,” joining hosts Rob Galluzzo, Elric Kane, Rebekah McKendry and Ryan Turek to discuss “Get Out” (while it was still in post-production) and horror cinema in general, past and present. Via the lengthy, in depth conversation, you will find out just how big a fan of the horror genre he is. They talk about his discovery of horror as a kid, his favorite theatrical horror experiences, how horror has influenced his comedic work, the correlations between the two, what his top 5 genre movies are and much more! Fanboys should appreciate the chatter.
The podcast player is embedded below; Peele doesn’t enter the conversation until around the 31-minute mark if you want to skip ahead. It’s a lengthy conversation – about an hour long – and definitely worth hearing him speak on the movie and his intent, and horror cinema in general, before “Get Out” premieres on Friday.
