By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The scary side of fame is the subject of this fall release.
Universal Pictures will release HIM, from Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, to theaters September 19. It was directed by Justin Tipping, who also revised the Black List screenplay by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie. Tyriq Withers, Marlon Wayans, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker, Jim Jefferies and, in their feature-film debuts, MMA heavyweight fighter Maurice Greene and hip-hop artists Guapdad 4000 and Tierra Whack. According to the official synopsis, the film is about “Cameron Cade, a rising-star quarterback [Withers, a former college wide receiver soon to be seen in the I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER update] who has devoted his life, and identity, to football. On the eve of professional football’s annual scouting Combine, Cam is attacked by an unhinged fan and suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma. Just when all seems lost, Cam receives a lifeline when his hero, Isaiah White [Wayans], a legendary eight-time Championship quarterback and cultural megastar, offers to train Cam at Isaiah’s isolated compound that he shares with his celebrity influencer wife, Elsie White [Fox]. But as Cam’s training accelerates, Isaiah’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker, sending his protégé down a disorienting rabbit hole that may cost him more than he ever bargained for.”
