Jordan Peele kicked off his directorial debut guns-blazing with Oscar-winning Get Out, which he then followed up with the equally sinister and outstanding Us. And now he’s back with his third highly anticipated film, Nope, which so far has been receiving nothing but only the best reviews. One has to ask, though, what’s next for Jordan Peele?
Speaking to Deadline during the Nope premier, the director had this to say:
“When I want you to know, you will know, I guarantee you. No, I will stay within this realm that I love which is, I think, the only way I know how to view the world and how to tell stories at this point. A little bit of horror, a little bit of comedy; I’m always going to try and give you a big show.”
Currently, Peele is expected to release a stop-motion film with Netflix called Wendell & Wild, which will serve as a reunion for him and Keegan-Michael Key after their sketch comedy TV show, Key & Peele, ended in 2015. The film is directed by Oscar nominee Henry Selick and will also star Lyric Ross (This Is Us), Angela Bassett (Black Panther), James Hong (Kung Fu Panda), Tamara Smart (A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting), Natalie Martinez (The Twilight Zone), and Tantoo Cardinal (Dances with Wolves), to name a few.
As for Nope, it is set in a lonely gulch somewhere in inland California and stars Daniel Kaluuya (with whom Peele had previously worked on Get Out) Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott, Wrenn Schmidt, Keith David, Michael Busch, Donna Mills, Barbie Ferreira, Devon Graye, Terry Notary, and more. Its official synopsis doesn’t provide much insight—only that following the death of their father, a couple of caretakers of a horse ranch encounter a weird force. This probably explains the mysterious and weird things falling out of the sky in the film’s trailer.
Wendell & Wild
We finally have a date for Wendell & Wild, which is apparently set to drop on Netflix right in time for Halloween: October 28. The film, directed by beloved stop-motion film creator Henry Selick (Coraline), follows a pair of demon brothers (voiced by Key and Peele) and is set in a macabre carnival called Scream Fair, where damned souls are tortured on odd carnival rides. Later, the two cross paths with a young orphan called Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross), and together, they try to find a way out of their troubles and personal hells.
Speaking to Polygon, Selick shares that the production process, in and of itself, was also a ride “through hell and back.” The film was delayed several times due to the pandemic, a heat dome that hit up to 112 degrees in Selick’s Portland studio, and a series of Oregon wildfires. All in all, it has been in production for five years, only just now finally making it onto streaming and into our homes. Wow.
“All the puppets were put in cars and taken away when the smoke was getting close. The idea was, Well, if the studio burns, we can rebuild the sets, but we can’t replace those puppets—they’re very labor-intensive,” Selick said in the interview.
He further shared that for Wendell & Wild, he was finally able to make a call he ultimately was discouraged from making when producing and directing Coraline: making the seams of the puppets visible. Selick shares that Wendell & Wild has a more elaborate facial-replacement system and feels more authentic, with the “bumps and lumps” giving the puppets a more handmade vibe.
As previously mentioned, Wendell & Wild will also serve as a reunion for Key and Peele. We last saw the comedic duo during the finale of their eponymous show back in 2015, which makes this film all the more exciting. What are you hoping Jordan Peele will work on next?
(featured image: Paramount+)
