Universal has shifted the marketing for director Nia DaCosta’s Candyman reboot / “spiritual sequel” (watch the original Candyman at THIS LINK) into maximum overdrive now that we’re just one week away from the August 27th release date. New ads and featurettes are arriving online in rapid succession, and the latest one we’ve gotten our hands on can be seen in the embed above. This featurette discusses art and artists, something that plays a major role in the new Candyman because the lead characters in the film are an artist and a gallery director. The featurette puts a spotlight on the artists who were hired to create the art that’s on display throughout the film.
Directed by DaCosta from a screenplay she wrote with producers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld, the film has the following synopsis:
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.
With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
In addition to the actors mentioned in the synopsis, the film stars Colman Domingo, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and original Candyman cast member Vanessa Williams, who is reprising the role of Anne-Marie McCoy. The Anthony McCoy character is Anne-Marie’s son, the baby from the first film. Tony Todd is also in the film, to some degree.
Ian Cooper produced Candyman with Peele and Rosenfeld.