Jordan Peele shut down a mega fan on Twitter who hailed him as “the best horror director of all time”.
The writer-director is receiving critical acclaim for his new film Nope, which is released in the US on Friday (22 July).
Nope follows Get Out (2017) and Us (2019), which were both critical and commercial hits for Peele. In response to the success, comic book creator Adam Ellis very well-meaningly wrote on Twitter: “I know this is a hot take but at what point do we declare Jordan Peele the best horror director of all time?
“Can you think of another horror director that had three great films, let alone three in a row? I can’t.”
Peele, who is also a comedian, replied: “Sir, please put the phone down I beg you.”
He then added: “Sorry. I love your enthusiasm but I will just not tolerate any John Carpenter slander!”
Carpenter is considered one of the horror filmmaking greats, whose films include Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), The Thing (1982) and Christine (1983).
Peele is clearly heavily inspired by Carpenter and has turned his love of horror into huge profit for Universal Pictures: Get Out (2017) grossed $255.4m (£213.2m) from a $4.5m (£3.7m) budget, while Us made $255.2m (£213m) from a budget of $20m (£16.7m).
Peele was handed a bigger budget for Nope – $68m (£56.8m) – but the positive reviews combined with the secretive nature surrounding the film’s plot have box office analysts projecting another box office hit for the director.
Nope, which stars Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun, will be released in the UK on 12 August.
