Jordan Peele Explains The Double-Sided Origin Of Monkeypaw Productions
Jordan Peele's meteoric ascent in the film industry has landed him squarely on the map as one of the rare figures — alongside proven talents such as Christopher Nolan, M. Night Shyamalan, and a select few others — who's able to bring in audiences to original genre movies by virtue of their name alone. But Peele's actual directing work really only scratches the surface of what he brings to the table. In addition to lending his voice to animated movies like "Wendell & Wild" and "The Bob's Burgers Movie," he's also used his considerable influence to set up his own production company and help get several other projects off the ground.
By now, seeing the evocative logo of Monkeypaw Productions before his and other movies has become a familiar sight, conjuring images of the famous horror short story about the mystical item that grants wishes... at a cost. For Peele, this inspiration had everything to do with how he came up in the industry on his path to finding success, first as a sketch comedy artist on "MADtv." During a recent appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, the multi-hyphenate artist addressed the origins of Monkeypaw Productions and how it represents the give-and-take nature of the business:
"So it's that notion that once I got what I thought I wanted in 'MADtv,' it birthed this whole other world of nightmare that I didn't know was possible. This idea of, like, being up on television telling a joke you didn't believe in. Yeah, so it was just a kind of primal chord that story struck with me. A notion that helped me understand that sometimes it is about how you look at things. You can find fortune, and you can find good fortune where there is bad things as well."
'Horror magic is the magic of chance.'
It's only natural for the hottest names in the business to quickly find a home at a given studio, whether it be Christopher Nolan making the shocking move from Warner Bros. to Universal late last year or Rian Johnson taking his wildly successful "Knives Out" franchise to Netflix. While many naturally assumed that Jordan Peele's feature debut "Get Out" heralded a long-term collaboration with Universal, it's easy to forget that Peele's Monkeypaw Productions long predated his big screen efforts, going back to his Comecy Central sketch comedy series "Key and Peele." Founding his own production company came as a result of his early success and the urging of many to incorporate for tax purposes, but according to Peele, he wanted to put much more thought into it. As he states in the podcast episode, "To come up with our corporation, we're trying to pick up with something that we feel like represents us."
Asked why he named it "Monkeypaw" specifically, Peele responded:
"This thing about luck that you started with, it's the terms of magic that I think are cool to me. Horror magic is the magic of chance."
Referencing the 1902 short story written by W. W. Jacobs, which tells the cautionary tale of how the eponymous paw has the power to grant wishes at the expense of horrific unintended consequences, Peele explains how he spun that into a positive by essentially making his own luck through the horror genre and offsetting some of his most painful early experiences. With this little window into how Monkeypaw Productions came into being, Peele's established success in the industry certainly makes even more sense in retrospect.
Having just released "Nope" to critical acclaim earlier this year, fans can next see (or, rather, hear) Jordan Peele on his new horror podcast.