Nope First Look: We Get The Tiniest Peek At Jordan Peele's New Movie Ahead Of Super Bowl Trailer
There aren't too many filmmakers working these days who can sell an original movie based on their involvement alone, but Jordan Peele is absolutely one of them. The "Key & Peele" co-creator is currently preparing for the release of "Nope," his third feature as a director after "Get Out" and "Us," and so far, that's basically all we know about it. (That and it's another "social thriller" in the vein of his earlier work.) Thankfully, we won't have to wait long to learn a little more, now that Universal has confirmed that "Nope" will unveil its first proper trailer at Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022.
In the meantime, the studio has released a promo that mostly acts to remind everyone just how great (and eerie) Peele's first two movies as a director were. Titled "From Jordan Peele," the video includes clips from the famous scene in "Get Out" where Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) gets sent to The Sunken Place for the first time, as well as other creepy-as-hell moments from that movie and "Us." There's also a split screen shot that highlights the "Peele Crying Face" — or the "Peele Crying Stare" or whatever you want to call that motif from his films — before it jumps to the tiniest of sneak peeks at "Nope."
Steven Yeun Has a Cowboy Hat in Nope Sneak Peek
Where "Get Out" was a clear-cut and very effective horror movie allegory for racism among modern white liberals, "Us" was a flawed yet very ambitious follow-up that left its own horror-themed subtext far more open to interpretation. So far, it looks like Peele is going for an entirely different metaphor with "Nope," based on all the shots of characters (namely, those played by Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, and a cowboy hat-wearing Steven Yeun) in this promo. The previously-released "Nope" teaser poster also shows an ominous cloud trailing what seems to be a series of flags, so whatever trouble is going on in the film, it has something to do with the sky.
Is "Nope" secretly an alien invasion thriller where the cloud is hiding an unidentified, but potentially threatening, flying object? Or could it be Peele's horror movie version of a global warming parable along the lines of "Don't Look Up" only, you know, actually good? (No personal disrespect to those who liked Adam McKay's polarizing satire, of course.) That fact that it could just as well be either or neither of those things has me excited to learn more. Plus, with Peele and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema ("Dunkirk," "Tenet") having shot the film in 65mm in IMAX, "Nope" has the potential to be the most visually-pleasing "social thriller" Peele has directed so far. Bring on that Superb Owl preview!
"Nope" opens in theaters on July 22, 2022.