Jordan Peele is producing a remake of Wes Craven’s horror, The People Under The Stairs – and following a few years of quiet, the project now has a writer.
We seem to be writing this a lot of late, but here’s an update on a project that has been quiet for some time. Jordan Peele’s planned remake of Wes Craven’s 1991 social horror, The People Under The Stairs looks to be moving forwards with a writer finally been announced. We first heard that Peele would be working with Universal once again to bring Craven’s cult classic back to life all the way back in 2020.
We wondered back in March of this year if the project had fallen by the wayside somewhere, but happily, that doesn’t seem to be the case. That said, it’s likely to be some way off still, considering Doom Patrol writer Ezra Claytan Daniels has only just signed on to work on the script. Peele isn’t expected to direct, given that he has a film due at the end of next year that he’s confirmed to be directing. Instead, he’ll be producing The People Under The Stairs – as he did with Nia DaCosta’s 2021 remake of Candyman.
The original version of The People Under The Stairs was directed by the late Wes Craven and released in 1991. About a group of robbers who break into a wealthy landlord’s house – only to discover how twisted they are – remains a cult classic, both for its suspense and its satirical take on gentrification and class tensions in America. Although Craven is perhaps more famous these days for the Scream and A Nightmare On Elm Street, The People Under The Stairs is more akin to his earlier film, The Hills Have Eyes in its blackly comic social commentary.
We might be waiting another three years before we hear anything else, but as soon as we do, you can rest assured that we’ll let you know.
