After the record-breaking, zeitgeist-making success of Get Out, Jordan Peele’s horrific take on faux-post-racialism in America, Universal Pictures has signed a huge “first look” deal with the actor/comedian-turned-writer/director/producer and his own company, Monkeypaw Productions. Variety reports that the deal will see Universal producing his next film — a yet untitled social thriller (the genre by which Peele referred to Get Out, and of which he curated a film series at the Brooklyn Academy of Music earlier this year).
One promising element of the deal is that it seems — despite the much, much larger budget he’s being allotted for his second film (five times that of Get Out) — like Peele will still be almost wholly in control. He’s writing, producing and directing the film, as he did for Get Out (which Universal distributed). After that, he’ll produce various films for the company via Monkeypaw, including “micro-budget” projects like Get Out with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, which also co-produced Peele’s astonishingly low-budget directorial breakout.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the deal is set for two years, and the pact will allow him to continue making movies about — and with — people who’ve been underrepresented in Hollywood, and American society, due to “gender, race or sexual orientation.”
Peele said of the deal with Universal, “I am thrilled to continue the work we started together on Get Out — pushing the boundaries of storytelling, not only on the next film. but with all of Monkeypaw’s future projects.”