Oscar winner Jordan Peele is hinting that his fourth feature film could be his “favorite movie” yet.
The “Nope” writer-director revealed on the podcast “Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend” that despite his next film being delayed due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, his “next project is clear.” Peele’s fourth movie behind debut “Get Out,” “Us,” and “Nope” was slated to be released December 25, 2024 but was removed from the Universal Pictures release calendar along with another film from under Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Universal announced a five-year deal with Peele and Monkeypaw in 2019.
“Obviously, it’s been an interesting year because the writer’s strike had had me in a state of listening, and that’s where I need to be,” Peele said. “I do feel like my next project is clear to me, and I’m psyched that I have another film that, you know, could be my favorite movie if I make it right.”
Peele added that it’s key to have a “grounding character” in all of his horror films, as well as past comedy sketches. “Just like the comedy, the heightening, the pushing, the fantastical and the imagination, that becomes a certain type of project and exercise, but the exercise of grounding it is always what makes it work,” he said. “That to me, in horror especially, is the hardest part.”
Peele previously teased that he had four “social thrillers” planned after “Get Out” and told the Associated Press in 2022 that he was “off to the races” on delving further into the genre — including a possible sequel to “Get Out.”
“Never say never. There’s certainly a lot to talk about left,” Peele said, citing his aforementioned five-film thriller plan. “I just don’t know if I could limit how many films I have that are me,” Peele said at the time. “I’m starting to lose sight of what I would be doing if I wasn’t doing movies like this. So I would say the project has extended.”
The writer-director added of helming original films instead of joining franchises, “Nothing is more rewarding than being able to lead the charge on something that comes from somewhere deep and to get the support of a team on something like that. I feel like if I were working off of someone else’s property, I would owe something to someone else. Besides that core piece of inspiration, it just doesn’t seem as fun to me….When faced with my very favorite properties, it still doesn’t beat the thing I haven’t written yet or the thing I haven’t figured out.”
