Movies - TV
Jordan Peele Explains The Double-Sided Origin Of Monkeypaw Productions
By JEREMY MATHAI
Jordan Peele has had a meteoric rise in the film industry with his original hits, making him one of the few directors who can draw an audience through sheer name alone. But directing is just one of Peele’s many ventures, as he has used his considerable influence to set up his own production company, Monkeypaw Productions, and has helped get several other projects off the ground.
Peele explained his studio’s name — which comes from a horror short story about a mystical item that grants wishes at a cost — was inspired by his journey in the industry, beginning with “MADtv.” The director said, “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.”
He continued, “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.” When explicitly asked why “Monkeypaw,” 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.”