Kid Cudi to direct and star in ‘Teddy’ for Netflix
Hot on the heels of his starring role in X, a slasher following a group of amateur auteurs on a doomed porno shoot in rural Texas, Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi) has signed on to direct and star in a new film for Netflix: the semi-autobiographical Teddy.
- READ MORE: Kid Cudi – ‘Man On The Moon III: The Chosen’ review: an art piece of epic highs and honest lows
The film will mark Mescudi’s directorial debut, with Jay-Z attached to co-produce alongside Jeymes Samuel and James Lassiter, as well as companies Mad Solar and BRON. Mescudi announced Teddy overnight (March 22), saying in an Instagram post that he’d first started working on the film in 2013.
He explained that over the course of nine years, the project evolved from a film into a TV series, before he reverted the concept back into a film.
“I can’t wait for [you] all to meet Teddy, his friends, his family and take a walk in his world for a bit,” Mescudi wrote. “If I could sum up what the movie is about in one sentence, I’d say this: It’s as if I took the song ‘Pursuit Of Happiness’ and wrote a movie about it.
“I added a lot of my own personal struggles and experiences in it, so this film is very close to my heart. I know, that deep down, this movie will help people in the same ways my music has. I’m continuing my mission. Now this is a comedy, but if wouldn’t be me if I didn’t sprinkle some real shit in there. Its trippy, its fun, its sad, its life.”
At the time of writing, a release date for Teddy is yet to be announced. Mescudi did note, however, that production on the film will begin later this year. In the meantime, he’ll appear onscreen in Brittany Snow’s own directorial debut, September 17th – he and Snow starred opposite each other in X.
Last year, Mescudi’s life and career was explored in a documentary, A Man Named Scott, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. He also had a cameo in last year’s Don’t Look Up (alongside Ariana Grande) as a fictional version of himself, as well as 2020’s Bill And Ted Face The Music.
As for his music career, Mescudi is on track to release two albums this year, following up on 2020’s ‘Man On The Moon III: The Chosen’. In a four-star review, NME’s Will Lavin wrote that the closing chapter of Mescudi’s titular trilogy was “a cinematic masterstroke that electrifies the senses at every turn”.
