KingsOfKings
𝕄𝕒𝕕𝕝𝕚𝕓 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝔾𝕠𝕒𝕥
In an excellent piece at Vulture this week, Mark Harris talked about how Hollywood tends to learn the wrong lessons from a surprise hit like Jordan Peele’s “Get Out,” a movie that has made a remarkable $170 million on a budget of just $4.5 million. “Hollywood is an engulfing beast,” Harris wrote, “and its instinct is to incorporate — to get someone like Peele aboard the ship rather than to re-steer the ship itself.”
Indeed, the only project that Peele has been connected to was a rumor that Warner Bros. were courting the former sketch comic to direct their long-gestating remake of “Akira,” exactly the kind of absorption into the bankrupt, franchise-chasing studio mindset that Harris warns of. But fortunately, it looks like nothing has come of that (the box-office tanking of “Ghost In The Shell” probably helped there), because firm news has arrived of what Peele’s doing next, and it suggests both he and at least one of the studios in town are determined to learn the right lessons from the success of his first movie.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that Universal, who distributed “Get Out,” have signed a two-year first-look production deal with the polymathic writer-director-performer and his Monkeypaw Productions, as part of which they’ll pick up Peele’s next film. As yet untitled, it’s another “social thriller” in the vein of “Get Out,” one of four such films that Peele says he’s written in the years before he made his directorial debut.
The film is currently untitled, but apparently will have a bigger scope and scale, with a budget planned to be five times larger than that of Peele’s previous movie. But given how little that cost, a $25 million budget still sounds like it’ll be insanely profitable for the studio, so we can see why they’re planning to hold close to him.
As a further reminder of what a mensch Peele is (and hopefully a sign of commitment to change from the studio), the deal will also mean that he and “Get Out” producer Jason Blum will develop micro-budget projects for directors from backgrounds that traditionally get fewer opportunities because of their gender, race or sexuality. So good news all around. Hopefully word of what exactly the project is will be along before too long, but in the meantime, “Get Out” hits home video in just a few weeks.
Jordan Peele's Next Film Is Another ‘Social Thriller’ With A Budget Five Times Bigger Than 'Get Out'
