Kid Cudi will write, direct and star in Basquiat biopic JEAN
Complex reports the film is planned to shoot in 2027; the project grew after years of Cudi being approached to play the artist.
File photo: Kid Cudi performs at Rock en Seine in 2025; this is not a still from JEAN. ManoSolo13241324 · CC0 1.0 · Resized for display.
Kid Cudi is taking Jean-Michel Basquiat’s story into his own hands. Complex reported on Oct. 21 that the musician plans to write, direct and star in JEAN, a biopic about the artist. Cudi said years of people approaching him to portray Basquiat led nowhere, so he began building the project himself.
A role he kept hearing about became a film he is making himself
Cudi told Complex he has been reading books and speaking with people who knew Basquiat as he develops the film. He described it as a love letter to the artist and the New York world around him in the 1980s.
The report also showed Cudi in a Basquiat-inspired dreadlocked look in an Instagram carousel. Those images introduce his project; Complex did not present them as footage from the film. Production is planned for 2027, and the report did not name a studio, additional cast or release date.
