J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele Team Up for New Horror Series

By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter

This year has been good to Jordan Peele.

Still on Cloud 9 after his debut directorial horror-comedy “Get Out” earned rave reviews and box-office-breaking numbers, HBO has green lit Peele to co-produce the first season of a new series based off Matt Ruff’s critically acclaimed novel “Lovecraft Country.”

The story, which focuses on 25-year-old Atticus Black as he embarks on a journey across 1950s America to find his missing father, will be adapted into an anthological horror series.

Created with the intention to “reclaim genre storytelling from the African-American perspective,” the series is a collaborative first from Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Palisadian J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot.

JJ has been creating waves with his bold approach to showbusiness economics by saying that the “window” between theatrical release and other platforms is bound to shrink radically, suggesting that one day soon you can buy his next “Star Wars” or “Cloverfield” movies to watch at home on the first day of release.

But meanwhile he carries on producing lower-budget gems.

In what is hopefully a new wave of irreverent storylines that examine the swelling underbelly of our “post-racial” America, “Lovecraft Country” is a fantasy-thriller that demonstrates the lingering effects of Jim Crow America through the lens of a pulpy, necronomicon nightmare.

“I wanna stay in the genre,” Peele recently told Variety’s Playback podcast. “While I was developing ‘Get Out,’ I was also simultaneously developing four other projects that I call social thrillers. Each one is meant to deal with a different human demon; a different monster that sort of lurks underneath the way that we interact with one another as human beings.”

The show’s pilot will be written by Misha Green, who is lauded for writing and producing WGN’s hit historical drama “Underground.” Green will also serve as the series’ showrunner.

Still in its initial drafting, “Lovecraft Country” will take some time to get off the ground, but for now, Peele continues to fly high.