One of the biggest horror movies releasing in 2020 is Nia DaCosta’s Candyman and producer Jordan Peele has explained why DaCosta was the better candidate for helming the revival than himself.
In a recent interview with Empire, Peele explained why Nia DaCosta was the perfect candidate for the director’s role by bringing a fresh perspective to the genre as well as being a talented filmmaker.
“Quite honestly, Nia is better to shoot this than I am,” Peele said. “I’m way too obsessed with the original tales in my head. I probably wouldn’t be any good. But Nia has a steady manner about her which you don’t see a lot in the horror space. She’s refined, elegant, every shot is beautiful. It’s a beautiful, beautiful movie. I’m so glad I didn’t mess it up.”
DaCosta continued to detail her approach to reviving the beloved horror franchise and updating the iconic movie character.
“There is definitely a sense of taking ownership, and telling a black story about black people,” DaCosta said. “It was very important for all of us to have our main character be black, and for this experience to be through the black lens. Let’s make sure we change the lens now.”
Unfortunately, horror fans are going to have to wait a bit longer to see Nia DaCosta’s vision of Candyman as the film has been delayed from its initial release of June 12th 2020 to September 25th 2020 due to the current global health crisis.
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen, Us) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.
With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo; HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Candyman features a cast that also includes Teyonah Parris (If Beale Street Could Talk), Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead), Rebecca Spence (Public Enemies), Cassie Kramer (Bimbo) and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits), while Tony Todd is thought to be reprising his role as the titular boogeyman from the original series of slasher films.
