Shortly after Amazon announced that LORENA, a four-part Prime Original documentary series executive produced by Jordan Peele, will premiere on Friday, February 15, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, it's been revealed that Peele's upcoming social thriller, US, will open this year's SXSW Film Festival on March 8th.
Directed, written, and produced by Peele, alongside producers Jason Blum, Ian Cooper, Sean McKittrick, and executive producers Daniel Lupi and Beatriz Sequeira, US tells the story of a mother and father who take their kids to their beach house, expecting to enjoy time with friends, but their serenity turns to tension and chaos when visitors by the of twisted doppelgängers arrive uninvited.
Billed as the first project under Peele’s first-look deal with Universal Pictures, the trailer for US has Peele's latest thriller looking positively bonkers, with plenty of scares and social commentary to go around. Starring as the film's married couple are BLACK PANTHER stars Lupita Nyong'o and Wilson Duke. Also set to star in the film are THE HANDMAID'S TALE and MAD MEN alumna Elisabeth Moss as well as Yahya Abdul-Mateen II of THE GET DOWN and AQUAMAN fame. As a point of note, Abdul-Mateen II is also set to appear in Damon Lindelof's upcoming WATCHMEN spinoff series for HBO.
“We are crazy excited to world premiere the most anticipated film of 2019 from the creative powerhouse the brought us ‘Get out,’” said Janet Pierson, director of film for the festival. “We honestly couldn’t imagine a more perfect film to kick off the 2019 SXSW Film Festival.”
For those of us who are unable to attend the 26th edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 8th, US will invade North American theaters on March 15th.