The sci-fi horror film “Nope” by director Jordan Peele will be shown in Philippine cinemas on Aug. 17.
“‘Nope’ was written in 2020 during the pandemic. It was this crazy time. In a lot of ways, the film is a reflection of all the horrors that happened that year and are still happening,” said Peele.
About the title, he explained, “Nope means a lot of things. I always love to get into the head of my audience. I was inspired by the feeling of existential helplessness in us all, then this idea of spectacle, to bring people out to the theaters and help invigorate their love for the cinematic experience, and at the same time I asked myself the reason why we are obsessed with spectacle.”
In “Nope,” siblings OJ (played by Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) get back together when their father dies and leaves them a ranch estate to manage, known for training horses used in big Hollywood productions.
As they delve deeper in managing the ranch, both notice something unusual - something is in the sky and it is abducting people and animals, and the Haywood siblings are determined to uncover the mystery behind it.
“Nope” was shot with large-format and IMAX cameras.
“What I love about Jordan’s films is that they’re hard to describe. They have to be experienced. There’s always a real eternal premise and then a real truth in the middle of it. I always lean in when I don’t know what something is,” said Kaluuya.
He added, “But I can only lean in when I know that the director is passionate about it, that they understand it, that they feel it. And that’s always true of Jordan.”
“For me, the film is about chasing something far outside of yourself and chasing it to such an extent that you don’t realize, until it’s too late, what you already had,” said Palmer.
A Universal Pictures release, “Nope” opens in Philippine cinemas on Aug. 17.