Staff Reporter | On 15, Mar 2018

Oscar-winning writer, director, actor and comedian Jordan Peele is heading to Netflix for his next gig.

Peele stormed onto the world stage with his comedy series Key and Peele, which he created with Keegan-Michael Key. The Comedy Central show, which ran from 2012 to 2015, won the duo two Primetime Emmys during its three-year stint. Now, fresh from his Academy Award win for Get Out, Peele is reuniting with Keegan-Michael Key to voice two brothers in Netflix’s Wendell and Wild.

The film is a stop-motion animated feature and is based on an original idea by veteran of the form, Henry Selick. The James and the Giant Peach and Coraline director will be at the helm for the movie, with Peele and Clay McLeod Chapman working with him to co-write the script.

Netflix has signed on to finance and distribute the film, marking the streaming giant’s second stop-motion original feature – last year, it won a competitive Cannes auction to nab the rights to Bubbles, a film about Michael Jackson’s chimp, which will be directed by Taika Waititi and Mark Gustafson (Fantastic Mr. Fox).

Wendell and Wild is produced by Ellen Goldsmith-Vein for The Gotham Group, Peele under his Monkeypaw banner and Selick. Sarah Serata will co-produce, with Win Rosenfeld (Monkeypaw), Peter Principato and Joel Zadak (Principato-Young) and Lindsay Williams and Eddie Gamarra (The Gotham Group) on exec-producing duties. Argentine artist Pablo Lobato will design the characters.

Little is known about the film, but Deadline reports that Key and Peele will voice two scheming demon brothers, and that a deal has already been inked with Simon & Schuster for a book (written by Chapman and Selick) to be published around the film’s release.

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