Kid Cudi Basquiat Film Jean Is Real, and He Wrote It Himself

The Kid Cudi Basquiat film is officially happening. The rapper turned filmmaker announced on Instagram on Wednesday that he wrote, will direct and will star in Jean, a biopic about the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, according to Variety. Cameras are expected to start rolling in twenty twenty-seven.

How the Kid Cudi Basquiat film got started

Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, says people have asked him for years about playing Basquiat on screen. No project ever came together, so he decided to stop waiting. He told fans that he finally sat down and wrote the script himself this year.

He also teased the look. Cudi shared photos from a wardrobe test, including a shot in a baggy suit with his hair tied up in dreadlocks in the style Basquiat was known for. He was quick to say the wig is only a rough draft and that the final version will be perfected, as Rolling Stone reported.

The research was no side quest. Cudi described books, long reads and conversations with people who knew the artist. He called the movie a love letter to Jean, to the eighties and to New York City, and said it is meant for every dreamer out there.

Who was Jean-Michel Basquiat?

For anyone who only knows him from the crown logo on merch, Basquiat rose out of the downtown New York art scene in the early eighties. He started as a graffiti artist and became one of the most celebrated painters of his generation. He died in nineteen eighty-eight at just twenty-seven years old.

His story has hit the screen before. The most famous version is the nineteen ninety-six film Basquiat, directed by Julian Schnabel, with Jeffrey Wright in the lead role. Cudi says he wants to tell the story in a way audiences have not seen before.

A rapper with a growing film résumé

This is not a random flex from a musician with a side hobby. Cudi has been building an acting career for years, with appearances as himself in Bill and Ted Face the Music and House Party, plus roles in Ti West's X, Pearl and MaXXXine, according to Deadline.

Behind the camera, his feature directing debut is a project called Doe, which started production in Los Angeles earlier this year. He is also set to direct the horror thriller Wrong Number, where he will star opposite Barbie Ferreira. Jean would make three directing projects on his plate.

Fans have long pointed out a physical resemblance between Cudi and Basquiat. One viral unofficial video for his song Ghost even used clips from Basquiat's cult film Downtown Eighty-One, as noted by the A.V. Club. So the casting pitch writes itself, even if the real test is the acting.

What we still do not know

Details are thin. There is no release date, no named studio or distributor, and no announced supporting cast. Particle's roundup of the coverage notes that producers have not been named either, so treat everything beyond the basics as unconfirmed for now.

The crowded field is another storyline. Variety notes that another Basquiat film, The Collaboration, was in the works from director Kwame Kwei-Armah, with Paul Bettany as Andy Warhol and Jeremy Pope as Basquiat. It adapts a twenty twenty-two stage play and has no release date either.

A separate project called Samo Lives is also reported to star Kelvin Harrison Jr. as the artist. That means Basquiat may land on screens more than once in the coming years, and Cudi will need to stand out with his own take on the legend.

Why Gen Z should care

Basquiat's visual language is everywhere online, from posters to streetwear to the way creators talk about art that refuses to follow rules. A film written by someone who openly calls the painter a career-long inspiration could introduce his work to a new wave of fans.

It also fits a bigger trend of artists taking control of their own stories instead of waiting for Hollywood to call. Cudi put it bluntly: nobody wrote the part for him, so he wrote it. Whether that bet pays off will not be clear until filming starts and the first footage drops.

For more entertainment coverage, check out our movies section. We will update this story when a studio, cast or release window is confirmed.