Monkeypaw President Win Rosenfeld Predicts a ‘Real Evolution’ in Genre Entertainment Away From ‘Endless Sequels’
At first glance, a revival of the prank show “Scare Tactics” seems like an odd fit for Monkeypaw, the production company founded by Jordan Peele and behind such blockbuster hits like “Nope” and “Monkey Man.” But the more you dive into USA Network’s new project, the more the reality series makes sense for one of the more ambitious, meticulous and genre-bending companies in Hollywood.
Created by Scott Hallock and Kevin Healey, the original “Scare Tactics” premiered on Syfy in 2003. The series follows a simple premise: Each episode chronicles a group of “victims” who have been placed in a horrific situation made real by Hollywood magic and trained actors.
“You’re trying to make a horror movie for [the subjects], but for the audience, you’re trying to make a comedy,” Win Rosenfeld, president of Monkeypaw, told TheWrap for this week’s Office With a View. “We’re not trying to traumatize anyone for life. But the idea is it’s a safe bit of schadenfreude for the audience and, hopefully, a cathartic haunted house for the subject.”
It’s a swing that’s in line with Monkeypaw’s “curiosity” about exploring different mediums and embracing good storytelling.
“We all worship at the altar of story. The point for us is always, can you elicit a fun, genuine, emotional reaction from an audience?” Rosenfeld said “And then the question is what medium then becomes an interesting exercise?”
Long before Monkeypaw was considered for the reboot, the team was a fan of the original show. They also noticed that the prank genre was seeing a revival thanks to creators on digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok. So when Monkeypaw was approached about a reboot with “Scare Tactics” co-creator Scott Hallock attached, it was an easy yes. Elan Gale, known for his work on “The Bachelor” franchise, was recruited to be the series’ showrunner, a person whom Rosenfeld notes “understands the unscripted space probably better than anyone in the world.”
“We approached it, honestly, in a humble way,” Rosenfeld said. “Everything for Monkeypaw is so, so intentional and deliberate … Every prop, every shot, every line, the lighting, the casting — we agonize over this stuff. [‘Scare Tactics’] was a really fun exercise for us to say, ‘OK, you literally don’t know what your protagonist is going to do.'”
“Scare Tactics” marks an unexpected return to form for both Peele and Rosenfeld. For Peele, it combines the two genres most associated with the “Key & Peele” and “Get Out” auteur — comedy and horror. And for Rosenfeld, it marks a bloody return to the unscripted space.
At the beginning of his career, Rosenfeld joked that he “decided to disappoint my entire family and all my professors” by pursuing documentary filmmaking instead of going to law school. During that time, he created PBS special for “Nova” and “Nova ScienceNow” and segments for both NBC News and Slate. One of the segments Rosenfeld edited even won an Emmy. He then became a consulting producer for Showtime’s docuseries about the internet, “Dark Net.” That was around the time he connected with his longtime friend, Peele, in a more professional capacity.
Though the two have now officially worked together for nearly nine years, “unofficially” Rosenfeld and Peele have been working together for “25 or something.” During their time in high school, the two made “stupid videos.” (This was before the era of YouTube, by the way.) As Peele went to Sarah Lawrence and spent a few years in Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago, Rosenfeld gained more experience in editing and producing in the world of New York startups, especially when it came to the growing digital video space.
“I started basically like, ‘Hey, Win understands the internet. Can you cut a piece of this for the web? Because no one’s watching our broadcast show anymore,'” Rosenfeld said. He and Peele then professionally reconnected around Peele’s time on “Mad TV.”
“I had this expertise in building businesses in this startup space, and he’s a f–king genius,” Rosenfeld said. “It almost feels like this organic culmination of something that was almost always sort of inevitable.”
This “inevitable” partnership has led to some of the most critically praised films and series of the modern era. Since the production company’s formation, Monkeypaw has been behind Peele’s three massively successful horror blockbusters — “Get Out,” “Us” and “Nope” — the Oscar-winning “BlacKkKlansman,” Dev Patel’s widely praised “Monkey Man” and HBO’s critically acclaimed “Lovecraft Country,” to name a few of its projects.
Overall, Rosenfeld thinks of Monkeypaw not as a horror hub but as a “genre company.” Here’s how Monkeypaw has managed to stay on the cutting edge of genre entertainment while also prioritizing risk-taking without sacrificing quality.
Monkeypaw always takes big swings, but from a format perspective it’s kind of agnostic. You’ve dabbled in film, television, podcasts and now unscripted. Why do you have this flexibility?
It’s mostly about this curiosity about medium. We all worship at the altar of story. The point for us is always, can you elicit a fun, genuine, emotional reaction from an audience? And then the question is what medium then becomes an interesting exercise?
We seldom feel like we’re experts in one medium. The closest, honestly, to the thing we feel like experts in is feature theatrical horror movies. We’ve had the great privilege and good fortune to be able to learn from people in these other mediums in a really fundamental way. [“Scare Tactics”] is our exploration into TV that we can sort of look and say, “How does this become Monkeypaw? How does it speak to our audience, which has entrusted us with half an hour, an hour or sometimes two and a half hours of their lives to serve the story in the best way possible?”
How are you seeing the genre space these days? Because it’s always a complicated one.
I love what I’m seeing. I’m really enjoying the current state of horror. We’re in a moment where science fiction and fantasy are on the precipice of a real evolution. I’m just so inspired by all of the incredible horror movies that have been coming out over the last few years. We’ve come such a long way from endless sequels of things. By the way, there’s lots of things that are sequels, too. But these new voices seem to be popping up two or three times a year — sometimes more — that are making a real impact to me, creatively, and to the horror community but also are proving the point that horror movies can make money for studios. That’s great because that means there will be more horror.
Have you noticed that there’s been a demand for more horror?
Absolutely … It does feel like we remain in the right place, in terms of our interests aligning with the market. It is a really exciting thing and not always the case, by the way. For horror heads, if you look at the ’80s and ’90s, there were definitely long stretches of time where that was a different model and bastardized.
I grew up with [horror] always being treated as a B-medium, as schlock. There are exceptions to that, but for the most part, it was like something you had to overcome. I think the fact that people are now looking at horror as the place where, “Oh, hold on. This is where actually the most potent cultural critique comes, where the most interesting character dynamics emerge from,” is really exciting and a long overdue coronation.
What is the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
I’m very much a product of a lot of really amazing mentors. By the way, probably the best piece of advice is to get yourself some mentors.
The other best piece of advice is: if you’re having strong emotions about something you want to say, send or text, take a beat. Don’t be driven by whatever feeling is in the moment. Give yourself a moment to process. Let the wave of emotion crash before you start … Momentum is important in how we make movies and TV, but it maybe is a little overrated in some ways. This idea to go as fast as possible, now’s the moment — I think there’s a lot of fear in Hollywood and things are run from fear. Generally speaking, good stuff can deal with sleeping on it and dealing with it the next morning.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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