Principal photography commenced in Chicago this week on Candyman from Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures (MGM) and Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld’s Monkeypaw Productions. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Us), Teyonah Parris (If Beale Street Could Talk), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits) and Colman Domingo (Euphoria) have signed on to star in the film and will be accompanied by a lineup of talented local actors from the Chicago area.
Written by Peele and Rosenfeld and directed by rising filmmaker Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), Candyman is a spiritual sequel to the 1992 gothic horror film by Bernard Rose, originally based on Clive Barker’s short story The Forbidden. The film will be shot entirely in Chicago and feature various locations throughout the city, including the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified North Side where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood. Universal Pictures will distribute Candyman globally with the U.S. release date slated for June 12, 2020.
Collaborating with DaCosta is a creative team led by EP and UPM David Kern (The Age of Adaline, The Lincoln Lawyer), director of photography John Guleserian (Love, Simon, Like Crazy); production designer Cara Brower (Us, Twin Peaks [2017]); costume designer Lizzie Cook (Sense8, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and VFX supervisor James Mcquaide ( The Boy, Underworld franchise).
Abdul-Mateen II can next be seen in the upcoming HBO superhero series Watchmen. His additional credits include Black Mirror, The Get Down, the box-office smash hit Aquaman and the Oscar-nominated film The Greatest Showman. It was recently announced that Parris will join the cast of Marvel’s upcoming WandaVision series for Disney+, starring as the iconic superhero “Monica Rambeau.” Parris has also given memorable performances in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk, Spike Lee’s Chi-Rraq and Justin Simien’s breakout independent film Dear White People.
Stewart-Jarrett is best known for his roles on British TV series Misfits and Utopia, and in 2018 he starred on Broadway in the Tony Award-Winning revival of Angels in America. Domingo, a Tony® and Lawrence Olivier- nominated actor and playwright known for playing Victor Strand on Fear the Walking Dead, is currently filming Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring alongside Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. He has a reoccurring role on the critically acclaimed series Euphoria on HBO, and will next be seen in A24’s Zola, Noah Hawley’s sci-fi drama Lucy in the Sky for Fox Searchlight, and The God Committee alongside Kelsey Grammar and Julia Stiles.
MGM will co-finance Candyman with BRON Creative, headed by BRON’s Aaron L. Gilbert and Creative Wealth Media’s Jason Cloth, as part of their larger slate deal. Universal is handling global theatrical distribution. Ian Cooper (Us) will produce for Monkeypaw and Adam Rosenberg, MGM’s Co-President of Production and Tabitha Shick, MGM’s Vice President of Production will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.
MGM’s upcoming slate includes Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan’s animated adaption of The Addams Family featuring the voices of Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Finn Wolfhard, Nick Kroll, Bette Midler and Allison Janney, in theaters on October 11, 2019; the 25th installment of EON Productions, MGM and Universal Pictures’ James Bond film directed by Cary Fukunaga and starring Daniel Craig; Legally Blonde 3 starring Reese Witherspoon in her return to the beloved character Elle Woods, and Respect starring Jennifer Hudson as the legendary Aretha Franklin, among others
Under the Monkeypaw Productions banner, Jordan Peele wrote, produced and directed the critically acclaimed blockbuster Get Out, which received four Academy Award nominations and earned Peele the Oscar for his screenplay. Most recently, Monkeypaw produced Peele’s second original feature, Us starring Lupita Nyong’o. In 2018, the company produced Spike Lee’s BlackkKlansman, the true story of an African-American detective who infiltrated the KKK. Monkeypaw is also working on the stop-motion animated feature, Wendell & Wild, from director Henry Selick for Netflix.
