Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ to make world premiere as 2019 South by Southwest opening night film
Jordan Peele’s highly anticipated new film, “Us,” the writer-director’s follow-up to his Academy Award-winning “Get Out,” will have its world premiere as the opening night film of the 2019 South by Southwest Film Festival on March 8 in Austin, Texas.
The movie stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex as the Wilson family, who return to the matriarch’s childhood home in an idyllic Northern California community for a summer getaway. After an awkward beach day with their friends the Tylers, played by Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon and Noelle Sheldon, the Wilsons find themselves in a tense and terrifying standoff with what appear to be doppelgangers of themselves.
“Us” is the first solo production venture for Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. Peele and Monkeypaw’s Ian Cooper produced the film along with Sean McKittrick and Jason Blum. Universal Pictures is releasing the movie on March 22.
“We are crazy excited to world premiere the most anticipated film of 2019 from the creative powerhouse that brought us ‘Get Out,’ ” said Janet Pierson, the festival’s director of film. “We honestly couldn’t imagine a more perfect film to kick off the 2019 SXSW Film Festival.”
Last year, SXSW opened with John Krasinski’s horror breakout, “A Quiet Place,” which went on to box office success and critical acclaim and was recently nominated for a PGA award.
South by Southwest will release its feature film lineup on Jan. 16. This year’s festival runs from March 8 to 17 in Austin.
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