Michael Hargrove as Sherman Fields in Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta.

Candyman Featurette: Nia DaCosta & Jordan Peele on Bringing the Urban Legend to Life

August 16, 2021

Universal Pictures has released a brand new Candyman featurette for Nia DaCosta’s upcoming horror remake, which is scheduled to arrive in theaters on August 27. The video, which you can check out in the player below, features interviews with DaCosta and Jordan Peele as they give us a behind-the-scenes look into the film’s urban legend origins. They also emphasized the importance of telling the story through the Black perspective.

Candyman is directed by Nia DaCosta (Little Woods, The Marvels) from a screenplay she co-wrote with Oscar-winning scribe Jordan Peele, and Win Rosenfeld. Based on the short story The Forbidden by Clive Barker, and the 1994 cult classic film adaptation, the remake is being described as a fresh new fresh take on the blood-chilling urban legend.

Check out the new featurette below:

“For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror,” reads the official synopsis. “In the present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy and his partner, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.

“With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini-Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.”

The film stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen as Anthony McCoy and Teyonah Parris as Brianna Cartwright. Joining them are Colman Domingo, Vanessa Estelle Williams, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Rebecca Spence, and original Candyman actor Tony Todd.

Candyman hails from Universal Pictures, MGM, Monkeypaw Productions, and BRON Creative. The film is produced by Ian Cooper (Us), Rosenfeld, and Peele, with David Kern, Aaron L. Gilbert, and Jason Cloth serving as executive producers.