Following the news that Jordan Peele’s upcoming Candyman reboot has cast Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the lead role, THR has recently reported that the film is also currently in negotiations with Teyonah Parris.
Abdul-Mateen is set to play a Chicago artist who becomes obsessed with the legend of the Candyman, and Parris will play his art dealer girlfriend.
Parris broke out as Dawn Chambers in AMC series Mad Men before appearing in critically acclaimed films like 2014 indie drama Dear White People, Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq and Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk.
The Candyman reboot is being directed by Nia DaCosta, writer-director of Tessa Thompson-starring crime drama Little Woods, and Peele will produce alongside Win Rosenfeld under Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions banner. The project has been set up at Universal and it’s been given a release date of 12 June 2020, with production starting this spring.
Described as a “spiritual sequel” to the original, it “returns to the neighbourhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.”
The 1992 film was based on a Clive Barker short story and starred Virginia Madsen as a grad student who heads to Cabrini-Green to investigate the urban legend of the Candyman, who will appear behind you if you say his name five times into a mirror. The gory horror was rich in social commentary as well as gory scares and boasted an unforgettable performance from Todd in the title role.
Candyman will be released on 12 June 2020. Keep up with the latest horror news with the new issue of SciFiNow.
