In the new IMAX featurette for Nope, Oscar-winning filmmaker Jordan Peele describes the epic horror story as the biggest adventure he’s ever tried to tell. The nearly two minute video focuses on the use of IMAX Film Cameras and reveals never-before-seen footage from writer/director Peele’s thriller.
“I purposed wrote something without any regard to how possible it was,” explained Peele. “Thankfully, the great Hoyte Van Hoytema – one of the best cinematographers and the mastermind behind some of my favorite films and favorite imagery – responded to the script and the challenges.”
Oscar-nominated cinematographer Van Hoytema (Dunkirk) described the experience as always fun and creative. “This is made for a big screen. We shot on IMAX cameras and we were not shy of doing very extreme or crazy things with those cameras,” said Van Hoytema.
Peele added: “When you’re shooting on IMAX you just know you’re doing something cinematically special. The image is so overwhelming it feels like you’re there. I wanted immersion – an awe and a fear and a wonder we all had when we were kids.”
Universal Pictures’ Nope has the distinction of being the first horror epic shot with IMAX Film Cameras as well as Peeles’s first time using the IMAX technology. Audiences watching the film in IMAX theaters will see sequences shot with IMAX Film Cameras “visually expand to fill the screen as creatively designed by the filmmakers, allowing moviegoers to experience more of the image with unprecedented crispness and clarity.”
The cast is led by Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) and Keke Palmer (Alice, Hustlers) as siblings OJ and Emerald. Oscar nominee Steven Yeun (Minari), Michael Wincott (Westworld), and Brandon Perea (The OA) also star.
Described as an expansive horror epic, the simple synopsis reveals Nope follows “residents in a lonely gulch of inland California who bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.”
Universal Pictures is releasing Nope on July 22, 2022.
