Production designer Cara Brower had several themes to keep in mind when building the art-centric world of Nia DaCosta’s “Candyman.”
In the film, now playing in theaters, Yahya Abdul Mateen II plays artist Anthony McCoy, while his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright, played by “WandaVision” actor Teyonah Parris, is a gallery director steeped in Chicago’s art scene. Not only did Brower set out to find local Black artists in Chicago, she also wanted the sets to reflect the story of gentrification while still planting seeds of the original 1992 horror film.
Brower talked about her research, location scouting in Chicago’s Cabrini Green and delivering DaCosta’s vision.
The film goes back to the Cabrini-Green housing project, where some areas have seen new development after the original towers were torn down. What did it mean to be there?
We knew the film had to be in Chicago, and I wanted to...
In the film, now playing in theaters, Yahya Abdul Mateen II plays artist Anthony McCoy, while his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright, played by “WandaVision” actor Teyonah Parris, is a gallery director steeped in Chicago’s art scene. Not only did Brower set out to find local Black artists in Chicago, she also wanted the sets to reflect the story of gentrification while still planting seeds of the original 1992 horror film.
Brower talked about her research, location scouting in Chicago’s Cabrini Green and delivering DaCosta’s vision.
The film goes back to the Cabrini-Green housing project, where some areas have seen new development after the original towers were torn down. What did it mean to be there?
We knew the film had to be in Chicago, and I wanted to...
- 9/4/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
Paintings are a window into the soul of “Candyman,” the story of a budding artist who becomes fascinated with the urban legend of a killer with a hook for a hand.
In Nia DaCosta’s update of the 1992 horror film, opening Aug. 27, the artist’s work starts to consume him and begins affecting his life. Yahya Abdul Mateen II plays artist Anthony McCoy, while his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright, played by “WandaVision” actor Teyonah Parris, is a gallery director steeped in Chicago’s art scene.
DaCosta hand-picked Black artists Cameron Spratley and Sherwin Ovid to create Anthony’s work in the film. Currently completing his Mfa at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Spratley says he hadn’t seen the 1992 version when he got the call from DaCosta. At the time, he was living in Richmond, Va., contemplating his move to the Midwest. “My introduction to Chicago was by...
In Nia DaCosta’s update of the 1992 horror film, opening Aug. 27, the artist’s work starts to consume him and begins affecting his life. Yahya Abdul Mateen II plays artist Anthony McCoy, while his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright, played by “WandaVision” actor Teyonah Parris, is a gallery director steeped in Chicago’s art scene.
DaCosta hand-picked Black artists Cameron Spratley and Sherwin Ovid to create Anthony’s work in the film. Currently completing his Mfa at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Spratley says he hadn’t seen the 1992 version when he got the call from DaCosta. At the time, he was living in Richmond, Va., contemplating his move to the Midwest. “My introduction to Chicago was by...
- 8/27/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
“You can really make the story your own. But some of the specifics should be consistent.” So says William Burke (Colman Domingo), the aging keeper of the Candyman legend. And so say writer-director Nia DaCosta (“Little Woods”) and co-writers Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld (“The Twilight Zone”), the inventive re-creators of the “Candyman” franchise.
The filmmakers built their movie by deconstructing another one: Bernard Rose’s 1992 original, which was in turn based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden.” Though it was embraced by genre fans at the time (including a teenage Peele), Rose’s version is long overdue for a contemporary revision. It’s hard to imagine one with more searing impact than this.
The pandemic pushed the movie’s release date back a year, so the story opens in 2019 Chicago, long after the Cabrini-Green housing project of the original was razed to make way for gentrification.
The filmmakers built their movie by deconstructing another one: Bernard Rose’s 1992 original, which was in turn based on Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden.” Though it was embraced by genre fans at the time (including a teenage Peele), Rose’s version is long overdue for a contemporary revision. It’s hard to imagine one with more searing impact than this.
The pandemic pushed the movie’s release date back a year, so the story opens in 2019 Chicago, long after the Cabrini-Green housing project of the original was razed to make way for gentrification.
- 8/25/2021
- by Elizabeth Weitzman
- The Wrap
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