Get Out - by Jordan Peele (Paperback)

About the Book

Peele's celebrated screenplay combines horror and dark humor to reveal the terrifying realities of being Black in America.

Book Synopsis

Jordan Peele's celebrated screenplay combines horror and dark humor to reveal the terrifying realities of being Black in America

"Blending race-savvy satire with horror to especially potent effect, this bombshell social critique from first-time director Jordan Peele proves positively fearless."
-Peter Debruge, Variety

"An exhilaratingly smart and scary freak out about a black man in a white nightmare."
-Manohla Dargis, New York Times

"A major achievement, a work that deserves, in its own way, to be viewed alongside Barry Jenkins' Moonlight as a giant leap forward for the possibilities of black cinema; Get Out feels like it would have been impossible five minutes ago."
-Brandon Harris, New Yorker

A New York Times 2019 holiday gift guide pick

Jordan Peele's powerful thriller Get Out debuted in 2017 to enormous public and critical acclaim, a Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? for the age of Obama and Trump that scared audiences and skewered white liberal pieties at the same time. Rather than rely on popular archetypes, Peele weaves together the material realities and daily manifestations of horror with sociopolitical fears and elements of true suspense, and combines them with pitch-perfect satire and a timely cultural critique. This companion paperback to the film presents Peele's Oscar-winning screenplay alongside supplementary material.

Featuring an essay by author and scholar Tananarive Due and in-depth annotations by the director, this publication is richly illustrated with more than 150 stills from the motion picture and presents alternate endings, deleted scenes and an inside look at the concepts and behind-the-scenes production of the film. Continuing in the legacy of 1960s paperbacks that documented the era's most significant avant-garde films--such as Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, Jean-Luc Godard's Masculin/Feminin and Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura--Get Out is an indispensable guide to this pioneering and groundbreaking cinematic work.

Jordan Peele (born 1979) is an American writer, director and producer. Peele's directorial debut, Get Out (2017), earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay as well as nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. In 2012, Peele founded Monkeypaw Productions, which amplifies traditionally underrepresented voices and unpacks contemporary social issues, while cultivating artistic, thought-provoking projects across film, television and digital platforms, including Peele's follow-up to Get Out, the critically acclaimed horror epic, Us (2019).

Review Quotes

Named 'Best Screenplay of the 21st Century (So Far!)'-- "Writer's Guild of America"

This svelte, softcover, pocket-sized volume memorializes Peele's Oscar-winning script for the first time in print. Proceeding from a new foreword by Peele, 150 gorgeous black-and-white stills thread through the screenplay and into an appendix rich with brand-new material, including cut dialogue, deleted scenes, and Peele's annotations on the whole production. But the Annotated Screenplay's most ingenious intervention into the dense critical discourse around Get Out was to tap Tananarive Due to author its proper introduction, an essay titled "Get Out and the Black Horror Aesthetic." Due is a leading scholar in the emerging study of Black horror, and even teaches a course at UCLA on the subject called "The Sunken Place." [...] This new framing unlocks a deeper level of engagement with the film...--Ryan Coleman "Los Angeles Review of Books"

[In Get Out: the Annotated Screenplay, ] Peele uncovers additional subtle clues and allusions in the flm that may not be essential knowledge but give insight on the construction of the characters, their psyches, and ultimately their interactions.--Ina Archer "Film Comment"

Blending horror and dark humour, the director's multi award-winning screenplay reveals the terrifying realities of racism in America. Famously, Peele has described his directorial debut as a "documentary". Now, the annotated version gives fans the opportunity to learn more about Peele's screenwriting process.--Vivian Yeung "Crack"

Dive deeper into the Sunken Place with this dissection of Jordan Peele's Oscar-winning screenplay, including dialogue from deleted scenes and an essay on the black horror aesthetic.--Mekado Murphy "New York Times: 2019 Holiday Gift Guide"

Peele's 2017 thriller made the director's name and won the Oscar for best original screenplay. Now the script is available in book form, illustrated with stills.--Keith Bradsher "New York Times"

Reading the notes, which are extracted from a thoughtful but very conversational interview Peele did for the book...makes you feel like you're watching the movie with Peele himself.--Naomi Elias "Film School Rejects"