It's always great when talented people can appreciate other talented people, particularly when they're working in the same field. Take Jordan Peele, for example. After years of acting in and writing comedy projects (most notably the Comedy Central series Key & Peele), he made his directorial debut with Get Out, the social commentary-infused horror movie that earned critical acclaim and ended up being one of the most profitable horror movies ever. That ended up putting Peele in competition at the Academy Awards earlier this year with Guillermo del Toro, who helmed The Shape of Water. Del Toro came out the victor, but Peele still holds a tremendous amount of admiration for the man, as evidenced by the nice words he recently wrote. Here's a sampling of the praise Peele directed towards del Toro:
To watch one of Guillermo's masterpieces is an experience in escapism and wonder. To gnaw on the totality of his work reveals an obsession with the eternally forbidden romance between beauty and beast. Guillermo is in love with monsters and lives to show us that we are too. With each fable he weaves, he pushes us closer to acceptance of a primal truth: that we each have a deep connection to the spectrum of otherness.
Time Magazine recently unveiled its Time 100: The Most Influential of 2018 list, and Guillermo del Toro was one of the many individuals being honored. Jordan Peele was selected to write the blurb about del Toro, and in addition to the paragraph above, Peele complimented del Toro for the "potion" that he mixes that's "a pinch of macabre, a dash of melancholy and a few handfuls of stunning horror," along with a healthy serving of whimsy. Peele also said that watching one of del Toro's "masterpieces" is "an experience in escapism and wonder." Del Toro has a gift for creating monsters and weaving together mythology that captures audiences' hearts, and in Peele's opinion, artists "adore" him because he doesn't compromise when telling his stories of love and fear.
Get Out and The Shape of Water were among the most prominent movies at the Oscar ceremony in early March, with The Shape of Water earning 13 nominations and Get Out earning four. In the end, Get Out walked away with the Best Original Screenplay Oscar, while The Shape of Water won four Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. It will be interesting to see in the coming years if both movies are still appreciated by the masses as they are now, but at least we know that Jordan Peele deeply respects what Guillermo del Toro has accomplished over his more than three decades of filmmaking. Here's hoping these two can collaborate together somehow.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on what Jordan Peele and Guillermo del Toro are working on. In the meantime, you can stay up to date on what this year has in store theatrically by looking through our 2018 release schedule.
