Jordan Peele has proved that as a director, he can make some pretty good movies, having had massive hits with Get Out and Us. His new movie, though, has caused intrigue even before much is known about it — purely based on the single word title; Nope. As a movie title goes, it is non-descript, ambiguous and therefore perfect for generating some intrigue amongst film fans. Appearing during Universal’s CinemaCon panel, Peele explained why he gave the film the title he did, and it all comes down to what he hopes the audience will be thinking while watching the film. Peele said:
Peele’s directorial debut, Get Out, also had a title full of intrigue but gave nothing away about the movie. That was until the movie was released, and suddenly Peele’s abilities to choose a title for his movies became very apparent, as it was hard to watch the second half of that film without willing its lead character to “get out.” From the director’s comments, it looks like he is hoping that Nope will strike a similar chord with audiences when it makes its debut this July.
“The film is a ride. The title speaks to the idea of the audience reacting to what they’re thinking and feeling in the theater. When you tell people it’s a scary movie a lot of time they say NOPE. So I want to acknowledge those people with the title and bring them in. This is about the person who thinks they don’t love the horror movie. To show them that maybe they do.”
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Nope Trailer Was Almost as Ambiguous as the Title
Universal Pictures
In recent years, many movies have been accused of revealing too much in their trailers, whether by showing the best jokes of a comedy, set-pieces of an action movie or revealing surprise appearances. However, that is not something that Jordan Peele can ever be accused of. Just like his previous movies, the first trailer for Nope gave away very little about the movie’s plot.
Like some of the best horror trailers of decades gone by, Nope delivers ominous shadows, strange occurrences and faces of terror but never actually gives a sight of what the reason for any of it is. The only thing that seems certain about Nope is that after his previous grounded movies, Peele is now turning his attention to something more fantastic with his own alien film.
In a very short time, Jordan Peele has created the same kind of buzz around his movies as M. Night Shyamalan caused with The Sixth Sense. While it is questionable whether Shyamalan ever managed to quite reach the heights of his debut, Peele seems certain to have another hit on his hands with Nope. Hopefully, he can keep it on the right side of cheesy and cliché to avoid it being mauled by critics for being a rehash of old ideas.
Nope brings its sinister story to screens on July 22.
