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- ‘Get Out’s Jordan Peele Teams With WBTV, HBO & Bad Robot For ‘Lovecraft Country’ Drama Series; Misha Green Writing

Get Out writer-director Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions is teaming with J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot and Warner Bros Television on Lovecraft Country, a one-hour drama that has been given a straight-to-series order by HBO. The pilot will be written by Underground executive producer/writer Misha Green. Peele will be exec producer along with Green, Abrams and Ben Stephenson. Green will also be showrunner.

There is connective tissue to Peele’s breakout genre feature Get Out, which brought a Black Lives Matter theme to the horror genre. Lovecraft Country focuses on 25-year-old Atticus Black. After his father goes missing, Black joins up with his friend Letitia and his Uncle George to embark on a road trip across 1950s Jim Crow America to find him. This begins a struggle to survive and overcome both the racist terrors of white America and the malevolent spirits that could be ripped from a Lovecraft paperback. The goal is an anthological horror series that reclaims genre storytelling from the African-American perspective.

Peele brought the book to Bad Robot and enlisted Green.

“When I first read Lovecraft Country I knew it had the potential to be unlike anything else on television,” Green said. “Jordan, JJ, Bad Robot, Warner Bros and HBO are all in the business of pushing the limits when it comes to storytelling, and I am beyond thrilled to be working with them on this project.”

 

[jack_package_200]

Fucking rad.

I am there day 1

 

[kris.]

everything about this sounds fucking awesome.

 

[AlexMeloche]

Omg yess.

 

[Palmer_v1]

Haven't gotten to watch Get Out yet, but this sounds incredibly good.

 

[Dalek]

Wow-that sounds really promising.

 

[blackflag]

This sounds like literally the best thing ever

 

[Nudull]

Sounds like the Tales from the Hood sequel I never knew I wanted.

 

[Acorn]

The current revival of anthologies is making me so happy.

 

[TheExhaustedWalrus]

Well this sounds perfect. I trust Peele with anything now.

 

[Dalek]

Sounds like the Tales from the Hood sequel I never knew I wanted.

Oh...the shit? You want the shit?
https://youtu.be/68is6JxaIvQ?t=34s

 

[Anung]

Day zero. Goddamn!

 

[HStallion]

As a fan of Lovecraft, Peele and HBO this is amazing sounding. Seems Lovecraft has finally started to really leak out into the mainstream as they're using his name. Between this show and the Lovecraft anthology series Legendary is working on we're getting a lot of series heavily or directly based on his works and creations.

 

[LotusHD]

I'm in.

 

[Elandyll]

Day -1.

Genius.

 

[Grizzlyjin]

Sounds really good. I'm all about this.

With Green moving on, things don't sound too rosy for Underground then, huh?

 

[Kaizer]

Holy shit, DAY ONE

 

[Father_Brain]

I still need to read the book, but this sounds very much up my alley.

 

[Fallout-NL]

Yeah, excellent.

 

[Biggest-Geek-Ever]

I actually just finished this book a few months ago. It's pretty excellent, and I don't think I could have picked better talent to adapt it.

 

[CloudWolf]

This sounds amazing

 

[Plum]

Sounds amazing. If they can do the Lovecraft style justice without the, you know, racism, this could turn out to be something special.

 

[HStallion]

I'd not heard of this book before but I may have to check it out.

 

[Alligatorjandro]

I need to get around and read the book

 

[Dusk Golem]

This sounds to have serious potential, I love the description and am legitmately excited for this. 100% on-board to watch this when it airs.

(I haven't read the book.)

 

[Turin]

I'm in!

 

[Raguel]

I'm definitely interested

 

[hydruxo]

Well this sounds absolutely incredible

 

[PeskyToaster]

I don't have anything to add. Sounds awesome.

 

[bengraven]

I'm down like a horror clown.

 

[Fury451]

The current revival of anthologies is making me so happy.

Ditto

 

[Foggy]

Sounds like a total minefield, but if they can pull it off it'll be extraordinary.

 

[Nivash]

I really like the spin they put on it by including the racism, only in reverse. One of the harder truths to swallow about Lovecraft's literature is that you can't just remove the racism from it because the racism improves it in a twisted way. Lovecraft's descriptions of any people and cultures who aren't basically white Anglosaxon Protestants make them sound almost as monstruous and hostile as anything else in the books. It helps set the stage for the kind of world where the cosmic horror aspect makes sense, as well as making the setting even more bleak and hopeless by suggesting that the world isn't really worth saving in the first place.

Flipping it on its head retains that aspect while making it both more palatable and more fair to actual history. I love it. It gives me hope that the showrunners know what they're doing and that they understand how Lovecraft goes beyond tentacled monsters with weird names.

EDIT: Somehow missed from the OP that it's based on a book. Must read. Then must watch.

 

[Rygar 8 Bit]

hope it is awesome

 

[.JayZii]

Sounds great in concept.

I just hope they don't go with the caricatured, over-the-top "everybody's sprouting tentacles!" version of "Lovecraftian", and go with a more subtle unsettling creepy tone.

 

[Darksol]

I mean, that sounds like the perfect combination so of course I'm in.

 

[Ronin Ray]

Sounds like the Tales from the Hood sequel I never knew I wanted.

How do you ready anything in the op and come up with tales from the hood?

 

[More_Badass]

Grabbed this book a few months back thanks to What Are You Reading threads

Everyone involved with this is absolutely perfect for the adaptation

 

[.JayZii]

How do you ready anything in the op and come up with tales from the hood?

Black people and horror I guess.

 

[Charles Brandon]

Sounds brilliant. I fucking love Lovecraft's tales although the irony of this having an African-American flavour is not lost on me, given that Lovecraft was a racist fuck.

 

[Chase17]

Sounds good.

 

[Sotha Sil]

Damn. We sure live in interesting times. Sounds great.

 

[The Boat]

 

[CrimsonSquall]

Damn 1950's Get Out:BloodBorne it's lit

 

[NotTheGuyYouKill]

Hell yeah

 

[Platy]

Sounds awesome !

Also kinda hilarious to take Lovecraftian stuff as a metaphor for racism considering how HP had some pretty racist stuff

 

[Sgt. Kabukiman]

That sounds incredible. I need more Lovecraft in my life.
And I have no doubts that Peele will handle the horror elements perfectly as well as subvert the blatant racism present in some of Lovecraft's works.

 

[wrowa]

Based on the book by Matt Ruff? Haven't read it yet, but his past works were incredibly good, but never quite got the attention they deserved. Really happy
about this.

 

[jack_package_200]

For those who have read Lovecraft Country,

Spoiler

do lovecraftian-esque monsters make any kind of appearance or does the novel mainly focus on the existential cosmic horror/dread?

 

[The Living Tribunal]

Holy shit, this sounds great.