Kid Cudi announced on Instagram Wednesday that he’ll write, direct, and star in Jean, a film about the life of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, sharing a first look at himself in character. “For years people have asked me about playing Jean Michel Basquiat in a film,” Cudi wrote. “But no project actually came to be. This year, I finally said fuck it, ima write it myself.” The film is slated to begin shooting in 2027.
Cudi described the project as “a love letter to Jean, the 80s and NY city,” saying Basquiat’s work has inspired him throughout his career and calling the chance to tell his story “the biggest honor.” He said writing about someone who actually existed was a real challenge, one he approached through extensive research, books, and conversations with people who knew Basquiat personally.
The announcement adds Jean to an increasingly crowded field of Basquiat-related projects currently in various stages of production. Jean-Michel, a documentary from directors Quinn Whitney Wilson and Viridiana Lieberman, premiered at Tribeca and is the first documentary officially approved by Basquiat’s estate, co-administered by his sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux; it’s set for a Netflix release window in December. Samo Lives, directed by Julius Onah and starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Basquiat and Antony Starr as Andy Warhol, has already wrapped filming. The Collaboration, adapted from the 2022 stage play and previously tied to Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope, also remains in development. That level of overlapping interest reflects Basquiat’s continued cultural and commercial weight decades after his death in 1988 at age 27, a weight reinforced by his work’s soaring auction prices, including a 2017 sale of his 1982 painting Untitled for a then-record $110.5 million.
This marks Cudi’s second announced directorial project this year, following a horror-thriller he revealed in August. He’s currently in production on Wrong Number, his second film as director, co-starring Barbie Ferreira, which is shooting in Los Angeles.
With multiple high-profile Basquiat projects now racing toward release around the same time, the real question for Jean specifically is whether Cudi’s deeply personal connection to Basquiat’s work gives his version a distinct enough angle to stand apart from the rest of the field.