There鈥檚 little in contemporary movies quite like the arrival of a new Jordan Peele film. They tend to descend ominously and mysteriously, a little like an unknown object from above that casts an expanding, darkening shadow the closer it comes.
鈥淣ope,鈥� the writer-director鈥檚 third film, is nearly here. After Peele鈥檚 singular debut, 鈥淕et Out,鈥� about the possession of Black bodies and the fallacy of post-racial America, and his follow-up, 鈥淯s,鈥� a monstrous tale of doppelgangers and societal mirrors, the closely-kept-under-wraps 鈥淣ope鈥� brings a new set of horrors and unsettling metaphors. For Peele, who writes through shooting and considers the conversation generated by a movie one of its main ingredients, 鈥淣ope鈥� is far from a finished project.
鈥淢ovie鈥檚 done,鈥� Peele said in a recent interview. 鈥淚鈥檓 still writing it.鈥�
It鈥檚 Peele鈥檚 most ambitious film yet, a flying saucer horror that digs into the nature of spectacle and the desire to document it 鈥� a multithreaded theme that encompasses Hollywood history and 鈥淣ope,鈥� itself. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as a brother and sister in a family horse wrangling business for film productions. Their California ranch is visited by a strange and violent force in the clouds that they strive to capture on film.
鈥淣ope,鈥� which opens in theaters Friday, also extends Peele鈥檚 own self-conjured mythology. His movies are very loosely tethered together (some fictional establishments appear in several of them), and now even encompass a 鈥淣ope鈥� theme park attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. Peele鈥檚 dark world is increasingly ours.
For Peele, as he said speaking recently by Zoom from Los Angeles, 鈥淣ope鈥� is about reaching for a kind of Hollywood movie once unattainable. He pointedly opens the film with Eadweard Muybridge鈥檚 1887 photographic study showing a Black rider on a horse. It was one of the first moving pictures. But while the name of the horse and its owner was recorded, the name of the Black jockey is unknown.
鈥淚 feel like this is the first moment that anyone would ever allow me or anyone to make this movie. And so I had to take advantage. I had to go as big as possible,鈥� said Peele. 鈥淚 was like: `Let鈥檚 go.鈥濃��
Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
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AP. The Eadweard Muybridge loop looms over 鈥淣ope鈥� your characters are said to be descendants from its unnamed rider. To you, what does it mean that the erasure of Black men was there at the foundation of cinema?
Peele: It鈥檚 a sad part of this industry. It was something I was learning at a good point for myself in this story. I felt like five, 10 years ago, I would never have been able to sell this movie to anyone. So I鈥檓 juxtaposing this origin story of film at the same time I鈥檓 trying to make a story that鈥檚 scary and joyous and adventurous and everything I love about film. It just felt very fitting for that starting point to be acknowledged and have ancestral implications for our main characters.
AP: Do you think of your movie as like an antidote to that film?
Peele: Yes. I鈥檝e been trying to put that together. It鈥檚 a sequel, it鈥檚 an antidote, it鈥檚 a reboot, it鈥檚 an answer to the way films began and have continued.
AP: Kaluuya and Palmer鈥檚 characters work on movie sets and 鈥淣ope鈥� centers on their attempts to capture something on film. To you, is 鈥淣ope鈥� about the movie industry?
Peele: It became very meta very quick. Making a movie is basically like chasing the impossible, trying to bottle something that doesn鈥檛 exist. I was inspired by films like 鈥淜ing Kong鈥� and 鈥淛urassic Park鈥� that really deal with the human addiction to spectacle and the presentation and monetization of that. The meta part is you鈥檙e commenting on this notion at the same time you鈥檙e trying to utilize it and trying to create something that people can鈥檛 look away from.
AP: Why do you think in writing 鈥淣ope鈥� your thoughts went back to the beginning of film?
Peele: Part of the world of 鈥淣ope鈥� is flirting with real Hollywood and the Hollywood that takes place in my liminal dreams and nightmares. In real life, of the prominent Hollywood horse trainers, there鈥檚 not an African American one I鈥檓 representing. The Haywoods are a very made-up family and notion. It was fun to weave the Hollywood fiction with reality and try and make a seamless immersion into what鈥檚 real and what鈥檚 not.
AP: A poster of Sidney Poitier鈥檚 1972 Western 鈥淏uck and the Preacher鈥� is seen in the background of several shots. Was that an important film to you?
Peele: It鈥檚 the first film that that I know of that had Black cowboys represented in it. The myth that cowboys were just white guys running around, it鈥檚 just not true, but we don鈥檛 know that because of Hollywood and the romanticized view of a very brutalized era. The film, it shares a spirit.
AP: Since seeing your film, clouds have taken on a sinister appearance to me. What led you to build your film around that image of an unmoving cloud?
Peele: The beauty of the sky is enthralling 鈥� the first movies, in a way. Every now and then you鈥檒l see a cloud that sits alone and is too low, and it gives me this vertigo and this sense of Presence with a capital P. I can鈥檛 describe it, but I knew if I could bottle that and put it into a horror movie, it might change the way people look at the sky.
AP: How much were you thinking about 鈥淐lose Encounters of the Third Kind鈥�?
Peele: Yeah, 鈥淐lose Encounters鈥� is something I think about a lot, as is 鈥淪igns鈥� by M. Night Shyamalan. These are big-vision directors who have taken flying saucers and science fiction and have brought magic to the way they told those stories. I wanted to toss my hat in the ring to one of my favorite subgenres, in UFOs, and do it in a way only I can.
AP: When the U.S. government declassified video of Navy pilots encountering unexplained aircraft 鈥� something your movie references 鈥� how did you react? Were you affected by those images?
Peele: I was. It made it very real, very much in the moment. It鈥檚 one of the reasons, I guess, I can proudly say this movie is based on a true story. But what was most nerve-wracking or scary to me about the whole thing is that you鈥檇 like to think that when actual video proof of UFOs comes out that something would change in our lifestyle, not it鈥檚 really business as usual. It just proves that there is a desensitization to spectacle. We鈥檙e addicted and we鈥檙e in over our heads with this addiction. We have proof of UFOs or UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), but the interest with the major public goes so far. It鈥檚 very interesting.
AP: You seem to be referring to movies as spectacles but were there also political dimensions to that? You developed this film through some very tumultuous times in American life, including the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Peele: Attention can be a violent thing and our addiction to spectacle can have negative consequences. I think sometimes if we give the wrong spectacle too much attention, it can give it too much power. If we are obsessed with the wrong spectacle, it can distract us from what鈥檚 really going on. There鈥檚 really a human need to see the unseeable that our entire society is based around. And in so many ways we see it. The last five years, it feels like we鈥檝e gone from seeking spectacle to being inundated with it. And that鈥檚 the environment I wrote the film in.
AP: There aren鈥檛 many filmmakers with as much freedom to make original studio movies as you. You鈥檝e had chances to join major franchises. How focused are you on crafting your own films from the bottom up?
Peele: Nothing is more rewarding than being able to lead the charge on something that comes from somewhere deep and to get the support of a team on something like that. I feel like if I were working off of someone else鈥檚 property, I would owe something to someone else. Besides that core piece of inspiration, it just doesn鈥檛 seem as fun to me.
AP: Have you been tempted?
Peele: Yeah, there has been temptation. Sure. And there is temptation. There鈥檚 so many things I love. And yet, when faced with my very favorite properties, it still doesn鈥檛 beat the thing I haven鈥檛 written yet or the thing I haven鈥檛 figured out.
AP: Do you get asked a lot about a sequel to 鈥淕et Out鈥�?
Peele: I do get asked that a lot. Never say never. There鈥檚 certainly a lot to talk about left. We鈥檒l see.
AP: After 鈥淕et Out,鈥� you suggested you would embark on a series of genre films that grapple with big societal issues. Three films in, where do you feel you are in that project?
Peele: I feel like I鈥檓 off to the races. I just don鈥檛 know if I could limit how many films I have that are me. I鈥檓 starting to lose sight of what I would be doing if I wasn鈥檛 doing movies like this. So I would say the project has extended.
鈥擝y Jake Coyle THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
