Principal photography is now underway in Chicago on Candyman from Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures and Jordan Peele and Win Rosenfeld’s Monkeypaw Productions, with Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) in the director’s chair. We’ve learned today that DaCosta has cast several local performers in key supporting roles alongside previously announced stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Us, Aquaman), Teyonah Parris (If Beale Street Could Talk, Chi-Raq), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits, Utopia) and Colman Domingo (HBO’s Euphoria, If Beale Street Could Talk).

Joining the film’s cast are Brian King (Showtime’s The Chi, Starz!’s Boss), award-winning stage/screen actress Rebecca Spence (Princess Cyd, Public Enemies, Steppenwolf Theatre), Glenview native Kyle Kaminsky (One Night in Hollywood, DriverX), and a trio of Chicago stage veterans — Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, Dreamgirls), Cedric Mays (Chicago’s Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatres) and Christiana Clark (Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater).

They will be joined by two well-known local broadcast news anchors/reporters playing (you guessed it!) television reporters in the film — Nancy Pender (formerly with WFLD-FOX/32) and Pam Jones (currently with WGN-AM/720).

Peele co-wrote the script, described as a “spiritual sequel” to the original classic.

The new movie returns to the neighborhood where the legend began: the now-gentrified section of Chicago where the Cabrini-Green housing projects once stood.

MGM will bring Candyman back to life on June 12, 2020.