El Cerrito native Justin Tipping is kicking it in the big times now and credits his first indie feature, 2016’s Oakland-set “Kicks,” with Mahershala Ali, for paving the way to his biggest career milestone yet — directing and co-screenwriting the provocative new horror film “HIM,”  a dark look at American football and fame.

“The reason I’m here is because Jordan Peele saw ‘Kicks’ and loved it,” Tipping said during a phone interview. “Around the time that was being released he had won an Academy Award (best original screenplay for “Get Out”) and had just started Monkeypaw Productions. He wanted to meet young filmmakers and wanted to meet me.

“So the seed was planted.”

Then came a nearly decade-long gap with Tipping venturing into various projects in the streaming and TV universe. When “HIM” – originally titled “GOAT” — hit Peele’s desk, the stars aligned and Tipping’s attention was piqued.

Since he had participated in basketball, baseball, soccer and gymnastics while growing up in the East Bay, he instantly responded to the film’s crazy sports-themed plot in which up-and-coming football player Cameron Cade (played by Tyriq Withers) goes on the mend and trains at veteran football icon Isaiah White’s (Marlon Wayans)  freaky Southwest desert sports compound after an attack by a deranged fan. Little does Cam know, he just stepped into a Dantean lair — religious allusions and all.

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“HIM” opens Sept. 19 in area theaters.

What also drew Tipping and Peele to the “HIM” was that it explored some of the same themes, including those pertaining to the concept masculinity, that Tipping had raised in “Kicks,” a personal film centered on a Richmond teen going to dangerous lengths to retrieve a pair of Air Jordans that had been violently stolen from him. (Tipping based “Kicks,” in part, on his own teen experience.)

While the two films do overlap on some hot-button topics, they diverge in other ways, Tipping, 40, says.

“‘Kicks’ explores toxic masculinity and society’s expectations and the dark side of that and what comes with that, “ Tipping said. “‘HIM’ does too but I would say in a slightly different way. … The shoes (in ‘Kicks’) were the commodity and that was the symbolic thing of commodity fetishism, where we covet these items and put our entire personhood into them.”

In “HIM,” the commodities take flesh-and-blood forms.

“I came in and told Jordan that this movie is exploring the absurdity of toxic masculinity but within an institution,” Tipping explains. “And for me, this was, ‘Let’s make the horror centered around what happens when we make the athlete the commodity.” And if an athlete gets injured he or she is “disposable.”

“You’re basically just a warm body used as a puppet. And if we can make that film then we’re onto something.”

Critical to pulling off an authentic sports movie involved casting actors who looked like athletes.

The biggest question mark that hounded everyone was “who the hell is going to be able to pull off” playing Cam? Enter Withers, a former Florida State Seminoles Football player and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” heartthrob.

After being proposed by casting director Carmen Cuba, the 27-year-old Withers swayed Tipping with his athletic background and previous performances, including an episode of “Atlanta,” as well as with an Instagram post in which the actor gave a memorable wrap-up speech. Withers came across as so “soulful” and “sincere” that Tipping realized he’d found his Cam.

Also benefitting the process were Withers’ and Tipping’s athletic backgrounds. Both understood the mindset and rigorous training schedules that come with big-time sports.

“It’s invaluable to just know what goes on in the locker room and what it takes to wake up at 5 a.m. and run and train for two hours and then go to school and the dedication that takes,” Tipping said.

Although Wayans wasn’t “a certain athlete,” the comedian and actor known for “Scary Movie” and many other films, including was sports drama “Above the Rim,” was at the top of Tipping’s list to play Isaiah. (In a bizarre coincidence, Tipping notes that he was on his way to watch “Scary Movie” in Emeryville when he was robbed of his Air Jordans).

“(Marlon) had the same experience just working in comedy and working in entertainment where he’ll go six months without a day off. It’s a very similar way of life to that of the professional athlete, where there are no days off,” he said.”  You’re just training every day.”

While the original title had been “GOAT,” a project by a real-life Bay Area GOAT – Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry – led to making a fast break from that title.

“By the time that we were gearing up to go into preproduction and officially making the movie, Universal realized in the meantime that Steph Curry bought the rights to ‘Goat’ and every combination of ‘Goat’ for” an 2026 animated feature that the decorated athlete is co-producing and voices one character,” Tipping said.

“I was like a week away from getting on a plane and going to make the movie and Jordan called me and was like ‘We should talk. What are we going to call this thing now?’ Ultimately it led to ‘HIM.’”

Tipping actually prefers the title “HIM” since it ties in religion with football — a main point of the film. And there are absolutely no hard feelings that Curry used the original title. Tipping considered the Warriors star to be the kind of GOAT all of us can admire.

“I think he, at least from what I know, debunks the myth that you have to be kind of an (expletive) or a bad person or sacrifice XY Z to achieve greatness,” he said. “Having grown up in the Bay Area and watching his career it has always felt like he’s never really lost his humility.”

Fame in sports can come with a serious cost, Tipping says, not just for the athlete but for fans who invest too much into their heroes.

“We put all of our hopes and dreams and joys and how we’re going to feel that day into the hands of like one random wide receiver on a fantasy football team,” Tipping observes. “But if he drops the pass, it’s going to ruin someone’s life.”

“I think that is the dark side when we don’t keep ourselves in check as audiences and fans, where there is a thin line between supporting something and worshiping something.”