{"id":2272490,"date":"2026-02-08T12:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2272490"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:21:30","slug":"the-burbs-remakes-a-cult-film-with-a-new-mom-and-secretive-husband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-burbs-remakes-a-cult-film-with-a-new-mom-and-secretive-husband\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The ‘Burbs’ remakes a cult film with a new mom and secretive husband"},"content":{"rendered":"

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New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Keke Palmer can make Jack Whitehall blush.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re sitting in the green room at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just before Palmer is set to host a live edition of her podcast, \u201cBaby, This Is Keke Palmer,<\/a>\u201d with Whitehall and their other co-stars from the Peacock series \u201cThe \u2018Burbs,\u201d premiering Sunday.<\/p>\n

In the show, Palmer and Whitehall play Samira and Rob, new parents who move back to Rob\u2019s hometown of Hinkley Hills, a beautiful suburb where Samira immediately suspects something is amiss.<\/p>\n

Palmer has kicked off her high heels and tucked her feet under her on the couch where she sits next to Whitehall as I ask them about their chemistry read.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was making me \u2014 not just me, everybody \u2014 laugh,\u201d she remembers. \u201cIt was like, yeah, I can see how you fall in love with this guy because he\u2019s just so funny and he\u2019s so sweet. It\u2019s so true, Jack. Seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehall\u2019s face turns red, which I point out. He admits that\u2019s the case through giggles. Palmer interjects, \u201cHe knows how I feel. That\u2019s my boo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Burbs<\/a>\u201d reimagines the 1989 Joe Dante movie<\/a> starring Tom Hanks for a modern era. In the original, Hanks\u2019 character is driven to madness, imagining that his neighbors in the creepy house across the street might be murderers.<\/p>\n

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Jack Whitehall as Rob and Keke Palmer as Samira in \u201cThe \u2018Burbs,\u201d a series that reimagines Joe Dante\u2019s 1989 film.<\/p>\n

(Elizabeth Morris\/Peacock)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Developed by Celeste Hughey, this version puts Palmer\u2019s Samira, a lawyer on maternity leave, at the center. Though initially ill at ease among the carefully manicured lawns, she develops a fast friendship with a group of gossipy wine guzzlers on her block (played by Julia Duffy, Paula Pell and Mark Proksch<\/a>). When a creepy man (Justin Kirk) moves into the dilapidated Victorian mansion across the street, she starts to wonder whether it has something to do with the disappearance of a teenage girl years ago. And then she starts to ponder how Rob might be involved. Is it a case of paranoia thanks to new motherhood? Or is there something really amiss in this paradise?<\/p>\n

Initially, Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment, which made the original, and Seth MacFarlane\u2019s Fuzzy Door Productions had teamed up to do a new film version of \u201cThe \u2018Burbs.\u201d During the COVID-19 pandemic, MacFarlane thought that the title might make sense for the \u201cdark, humorous, creepy vibes of our shared fear inside our own communities,\u201d Fuzzy Door president and show executive producer Erica Huggins explains in a phone interview. After it was reconceived as a series, they reached out to Hughey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I thought about it for a modern take, I really wanted to center an outsider,\u201d Hughey says, adding, \u201cI grew up in Boston, a very white suburb, as a mixed kid; I wanted to center it on a Black woman who has a new baby, a new husband, in a new neighborhood kind of unwillingly and seeing it through her eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer was always who Hughey wanted to play Samira, and Grazer had the same idea.<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Keke Palmer says she was attracted to the idea of playing a mom having experienced the realities of being a new mom herself.<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s so versatile,\u201d Grazer says, adding she could be \u201creally funny and really pretty and she could be the average person. Like, you could live through her and that\u2019s a big thing. What was so great about Tom Hanks is you could live through him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turns out the timing was perfect. Palmer wasn\u2019t all that familiar with the 1989 version, but she identified with Hughey\u2019s vision, especially given that her son, Leo, was around 1 year old at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThinking about playing a mom and now being a mom and also being able to use horror and comedy to play with the realities of what it feels like to be a new mom all felt very exciting to me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Once Palmer signed on, Hughey and her team needed to find someone to match her infectious energy. Hughey says she imagined Rob as a \u201cfully supportive partner\u201d whose childhood guilt is putting a wedge in their marriage. She and her collaborators landed on Whitehall, a British stand-up comedian who has had stints in blockbusters like 2021\u2019s \u201cJungle Cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitehall flew into Atlanta from the U.K. to meet Palmer, who was shooting the upcoming Boots Riley film \u201cI Love Boosters<\/a>.\u201d He tells me he has had bad experiences coming to the U.S. to read with potential co-stars before, but Palmer immediately put him at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m just genuinely curious, trying to get to know him, because at the end of the day we\u2019re going to be together every single day and we\u2019re going to be making out and kissing and hugging,\u201d she says. \u201cWe gotta be married. Is this my Desi? Am I his Lucy?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A <\/picture>\n
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Jack Whitehall, who is also a parent, says he found elements of the script relatable.<\/p>\n

(Jason Armond\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Whitehall also understood the nuances of the part because he had a young child as well. His daughter Elsie is now 2 and a half. (Leo is about to turn 3 when we speak.)<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many elements of the script were really relatable, with the character of Rob and the slight guilt that he has that he\u2019s going back to work and his wife is feeling trapped and wanting to be a protector and to be helpful, but then also not not quite knowing where his place is and how he can be sort of useful and caring,\u201d Whitehall says.<\/p>\n

For Palmer, portraying Samira\u2019s unease wasn\u2019t just about highlighting the disconnect between her and Rob, it was also about portraying the specific fears of living in a postpartum state.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always kind of having this anxiety,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t want to say it\u2019s disproportionate, but to a certain degree it is. You\u2019re constantly filtering out, is this real danger? You are kind of constantly gaslighting yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the eight-episode season, which ends on a major cliffhanger, \u201cThe \u2018Burbs\u201d is always trying to make its audience question what is really going on. That specifically relates to Rob, who is keeping a lot of secrets that may or may not be nefarious. It\u2019s an aspect of the character that attracted Whitehall, though he notes, \u201cI think at one point in this series the finger is pointed at literally every single member of our cast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018Burbs\u201d sets out to subvert expectations, and that also applies to the way it deals with Samira\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important to me that we didn\u2019t make it a clich\u00e9,\u201d says Palmer, who is also an executive producer. \u201cIt\u2019s expected that we play up the \u2018Get Out\u2019 aspect. So I think it was about not being untrue to that reality and how that plays a role in the story but to talk about the bigger thing where it\u2019s really just about being a fish out of water.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samira finds a true community among the other neighborhood oddballs, which is true to Palmer\u2019s experience of growing up in Robbins, Ill., outside of Chicago. Whitehall, meanwhile, says he grew up in the \u201cBritish equivalent of Hinkley Hills\u201d in a town called Putney, on the outskirts of London.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just full of very proper people, but very judgmental, and there were secrets on the street,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was scandal as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

During our interview it\u2019s clear that Palmer and Whitehall have an easy rapport. They go on tangents about Palmer introducing Whitehall to the 1997 film \u201cSoul Food,\u201d which Whitehall proceeded to reference on set. Palmer grabs Whitehall in exuberance as they speak. While they have different styles of deliveries, their senses of humor are the same, according to Palmer. And they figured out how to make everything click in the show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we found our timing together and we let each other have our moments,\u201d Palmer says. \u201cLike very telepathic. Like, \u2018Time for the bit.\u2019 We can feel each other\u2019s pacing. I guess we just really work well together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New York\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Keke Palmer can make Jack Whitehall blush. We\u2019re sitting in the green room at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just before Palmer is set to host a live edition of her podcast, \u201cBaby, This Is Keke Palmer,\u201d with Whitehall and their other co-stars from the Peacock series \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2272491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2272490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/The-Burbs-remakes-a-cult-film-with-a-new-mom.com2F562F0f2F8c3989b5422bae0db0565f7b.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2272490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2272492,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2272490\/revisions\/2272492"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2272491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2272490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2272490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2272490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}