By MICHAEL GINGOLD
There’s fresh mythology for the title character in the updated film coming later this summer.
Universal Pictures has released new promo material for the 2021 take on CANDYMAN, which hits theaters August 27. Directed by Nia DaCosta and scripted by DaCosta, Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld (the latter two also produced with Ian Cooper), it stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (US, AQUAMAN), Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Colman Domingo. The synopsis: “For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini-Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy [Abdul-Mateen] and his partner, gallery director Brianna Cartwright [Parris], move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.
“With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini-Green old-timer [Domingo] exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.”
See our exclusive words with Abdul-Mateen on CANDYMAN here.
