Over the last week, New Line Cinema has been making headlines for going all-in on a partnership with Barbarian (watch it Here) writer/director Zach Cregger and the film’s producers at BoulderLight Pictures. New Line came out the winner in a bidding war over Cregger’s next film, a mysterious horror project called Weapons. They signed a first look deal with BoulderLight Pictures, tasking the company with developing high concept genre projects for them. And they gave a greenlight to the thriller Companion, produced by BoulderLight and Cregger. Now Deadline has revealed who the runner-up was in the Weapons bidding war: Get Out, Us, and Nope filmmaker Jordan Peele, who wanted to produce the film through his company Monkeypaw, for release through Universal Pictures.

According to Deadline, New Line Cinema spent 38 million to secure Weapons as their own. That includes the film’s budget, as well as the 5 million...