Jordan Peele, the director of Us, has revealed which episode of the classic TV show The Twilight Zone inspired his movie.
Jordan Peele is certainly one of the hottest directors around at the moment, thanks in no small part to the tremendously successful and popular Get Out. Peele’s next effort is the horror film Us and comes out on March 22nd.
What was the inspiration by this terrifying tale that centres on the misfortunes of one family? Well, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the director said it was an episode from the classic series The Twilight Zone (which he also happens to be rebooting for CBS All Access this year). An excerpt from the interview can be read below:
“Its initial inspiration, appropriately enough, was the old Twilight Zone episode ‘Mirror Image,’ which he saw as a kid. In it, a woman encounters her duplicate in a bus station and becomes convinced it arrived from a parallel universe, bent on replacing her. “It’s terrifying, beautiful, really elegant storytelling,” Peele says, “and it opens up a world. It opens up your imagination.” He spent six months breaking down his script in his head and another six writing – a substantially shorter gestation period than Get Out.”
The Twilight Zone has been an inspiration for many filmmakers so this isn’t the most surprising news in the world. Are you looking forward to Peele’s latest effort? Let us know if you will be seeing Us in the comments below…
Set in present day along the iconic Northern California coastline, Us, from Monkeypaw Productions, stars Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Black Panther’s Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway.
Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past and compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high-alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family.
After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Emmy winner Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.
Us is set for release on March 22nd 2019 and sees Jordan Peele (Get Out) directing a cast that includes Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale), Winston Duke (Black Panther), Tim Heidecker (Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Get Down), Anna Diop (24: Legacy), Shahadi Wright Joseph (The Lion King), Evan Alex (Kidding), Cali Sheldon (Friends), Noelle Sheldon (Friends) and newcomer Madison Curry.
Originally published January 31, 2019. Updated January 30, 2019.
