By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Jordan Peele's "Us," his anticipated follow-up to "Get Out," will make its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival.
SXSW announced Tuesday that "Us" will open the 26th edition of the Austin, Texas, festival on March 8. Like Peele's "Get Out," ''Us" is a socially minded horror thriller.
The film stars Lupita Nyong'o as a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband and two children. On the vacation, an unresolved trauma from her past is unearthed leading to an eerie confrontation for the family with doppelgangers of themselves.
"Us" will be released March 15 by Universal Pictures. Peele also produces along with Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Co-stars include Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker.
SXSW runs March 8-17.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More