Producer Jordan Peele Has Hired Nia DaCosta To Direct His CANDYMAN Remake
Jordan Peele is moving forward of his remake of Clive Barker’s classic horror film franchise Candyman. He has recently hired Nia DaCosta to direct the film. I’m not really familiar with any of her work, but she wrote and directed a film called Little Woods.
This new Candyman film project is said to be a “spiritual sequel” to the original, and it “returns to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.”
Candyman was based on Barker’s short story The Forbidden which is one of the stories from his Books of Blood short story collections. The story for the original film follows a graduate student who is writing a research paper about local legends and myths in Chicago. While researching the project, she meets someone who tells her about the urban legend The Candyman, an artist and a son of a slave who had his hand severed and was then murdered by his lover’s father. Legend says that he will appear if you say his name five times in front of a mirror.
I’ve enjoyed the Candyman films that have been made and it will be interesting to see how this remake is handled, especially by a director who really hasn’t done much yet. I guess this is going to be her big break.
MGM Motion Picture Group president Jonathan Glickman had this to say in a statement:
“We cannot wait for the world to see what the mind-blowing combination of Jordan, Win, and Nia bring to the legend of Candyman. They have created a story that will not only pay reverence to Clive Barker’s haunting and brilliant source material, but is also thoroughly modern and will bring in a whole new generation of fans.”
Peele added:
“The original was a landmark film for black representation in the horror genre. Alongside ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ‘Candyman’ was a major inspiration for me as a filmmaker — and to have a bold new talent like Nia at the helm of this project is truly exciting. We are honored to bring the next chapter in the ‘Candyman’ canon to life and eager to provide new audiences with an entry point to Clive Barker’s legend.”
That certainly sounds promising. Production is expected to begin next spring and Universal Pictures will release the movie on June 12, 2020.
I know for the most part people hate that Hollywood keeps remaking older films, but are any of you looking forward to seeing how this Candyman remake turns out?
Source: Variety