Get Out’s Jordan Peele Ventures Into Lovecraft Country; Declines Offer to Direct Akira Adaptation
It looks like Get Out writer/director Jordan Peele’s next venture is going to take him to the small screen as his Monkeypaw Productions banner has teamed up with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television on “Lovecraft Country,” a one-hour drama series that will air on HBO, according to Deadline. The pilot is being written right now by “Underground” creator Misha Green.
Synopsis:
Lovecraft Country focuses on 25-year-old Atticus Black. After his father goes missing, Black joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find him. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback.
The story is based on the 2016 book of the same name by Matt Ruff. Peele brought the book to Green, who states, “When I first read Lovecraft Country, I knew it had the potential to be unlike anything else on television.”
This news also comes hot on the heels that Peele has turned down the chance to direct a live-action adaptation of Akira, the 1988 Katsuhiro Otomo anime. Speaking with Blumhouse, Peele explained, “I think [I could do it] if the story justifies it. Akira is one of my favorite movies, and I think obviously the story justifies as big a budget as you can possibly dream of. But the real question for me is: Do I want to do pre-existing material, or do I want to do original content? At the end of the day, I want to do original stuff.
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