Kid Cudi is taking matters into his own hands with JEAN, a film about groundbreaking artist Jean-Michel Basquiat that he will write, direct and star in, with production set to begin in 2027. The rapper and actor announced the project on Instagram today (Oct. 21), via which he shared photos from an early wardrobe test that show him sporting a dreadlocked wig inspired by Basquiat’s signature look.
“For years people have asked me about playing Jean Michel Basquiat in a film. But no project actually came to be,” Cudi wrote. “This year, I finally said fuck it, [I’m going to] write it myself.” He added that the wig shown in the photos was “not the final just a rough,” assuring fans, “trust me, we gon get it perfect.”
“This one I’m so proud of and excited about,” he continued. “To write a film about someone who existed was a challenge, but it was a welcomed one. A lot of research, books, talks with people that knew him. This film will be a love letter to Jean, the ’80s and NY city.”
Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, said Basquiat has inspired him throughout his career and that it would be “the biggest honor to tell his story in a way we haven’t seen before.” He closed the post by noting, “I know a lot of [you will] be like FINALLY. This one’s for all those dreamers out there.”
The film adds another ambitious chapter to Cudi’s expanding screen career. He made his featur -film debut in 2014’s Need for Speed and went on to appear in indie dramas including James White and Meadowland, as well as the HBO series We Are Who We Are, directed by Luca Guadagnino. His subsequent credits include Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, Ti West’s horror film X and its wider franchise orbit and the John Woo-directed action thriller Silent Night.
Cudi has also increasingly blended his music and filmmaking interests. He co-created and starred in the animated Netflix project Entergalactic (2022), which arrived alongside an album of the same name, and has served as an executive producer on projects including X and Pearl. In 2023, he announced plans for Teddy, a feature he intended to write, direct and star in, signaling his ambitions behind the camera as well as in front of it.
Basquiat, who died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at age 27, was previously portrayed by Jeffrey Wright in Julian Schnabel’s 1996 film Basquiat. Another project about the artist, the documentary King Pleasure, is also in development and is set to draw on archival home movies, notebooks, photographs and interviews.