I was in Marks and Spencers the other day and I noticed that they were selling Harry Potter merchandise and I couldn’t help but wonder why.
Harry Potter is a safe bet these days.
Harry Potter has proven to be wildly popular for the past few decades.
Marks and Spencer could’ve produced the easiest designs and the most generic jumpers and they’d still sell huge volumes of Harry Potter merchandise because there is such demand for it and I’m sure the person in charge knew this.
We can compare this to the transformation Jordan Peele’s career took.
Despite starting out and excelling in the genre of comedy.
Peele has no impressively established himself as a fantastic horror/thriller filmmaker.
I don’t know about you but the sudden change in material took me completely by surprise and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for Peele.
Take for example Peele’s movie ‘Get out’.
We know now it was a tremendous success but there’s no way he could’ve known that before sending it off to cinemas.
He was taking a great risk.
His skills in comedy were proven, a Jordan Peele comedy movie could easily create a lot of demand and sell a lot of tickets.
But Jordan Peele’s ability to create a thriller was unproven.
All of a sudden watching the latest Jordan Peele movie became much more of a risk for those early cinema goers.
‘Who’s willing to take the risk on Get out?’
It could be the work of a beginner and who’s willing to spend their hard earned free time and money watching something that could be terrible.
Fortunately Peele’s hard change of direction was a resounding success and his gamble proved to be an astute bet. But it could’ve gone horribly wrong and there was no guarantee it was going to work.
Peele’s bravery cements his status as a true artist.
Thomas Duggan 