Anytime Jordan Peele’s name is attached to something, it garners a certain level of interest. This is, after all, the filmmaker who gave us Get Out, Us and Nope in a row. While he’s not directing this fall’s HIM, that honor belongs to Justin Tipping, his company Monkeypaw Productions is backing the film and it very much sounds like a wild ride.
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Tipping, who has largely directed TV up to this point in his career , recently spoke with Empire about his forthcoming feature film. The mysterious teaser trailer for HIM revealed that it’s about football, but it’s also very clearly a horror movie. Tipping explained that it starts out like Friday Night Lights and eventually becomes closer to Nosferatu. Here’s what he had to say about it:
“My instinct was to set it up in a way that it feels like we’re in Friday Night Lights, or a Gatorade or Nike ad. We’re rooting for the kid who just needs to unlock one thing to take it to the next level. And then we subvert the expectations and let it become Nosferatu or Ex Machina, and let it evolve or devolve — depending on your sensibilities — into something it’s not.”
“Once I started leaning into some of my favorite horror — which would be more in the vein of a Jacob’s Ladder — the creative floodgates just opened,” Tipping added.
That is one heck of a sales pitch. It’s also a hard pitch to make, but that’s where Peele’s name can go a long way. To that end, Peele also spoke with the outlet and explained that this is exactly the kind of movie they want to make at Monkeypaw precisely because it sounds like it shouldn’t be made.
“At Monkeypaw, we love ideas that shouldn’t be made and that we’re not supposed to touch, and the combination of sports and horror was something I had never quite seen. It was just clear that we had a genre mash-up that was right up my alley.”
The film also boasts an impressively interesting cast led by former college football star Tyriq Withers (I Know What You Did Last Summer). He stars alongside comedy legend Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie) and Julia Fox (Uncut Gems), with Tim Heidecker (Us), Jim Jefferies (The Jim Jefferies Show), MMA heavyweight fighter Maurice Greene, hip hop artists Guapdad 4000 and Grammy nominee Tierra Whack. The synopsis for the film reads as follows:
“HIM stars former college wide-receiver Tyriq Withers as Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma.
Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White, a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White. But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.”
As far as Peele’s directing career goes, his next movie has been dated for October 2026 by Universal Pictures. As of right now, next to nothing has been said about it. No title, no cast, no plot details. Nothing. With any luck, we’ll learn a little more during the press tour for this one in the coming months. Fingers crossed. HIM is set to hit theaters on September 19. For more, get the latest on the long-awaited Gremlins 3.
