Getting ARTSY! Cyrano's Kelvin Harrison Jr. Set to Take On The Role of Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Biopic
Kelvin Harrison Jr. is set to star in a biopic about Jean-Michel Basquiat.
This sure-to-be-sensational film is being directed by Julius Onah, who worked with Harrison on a Film Independent Spirit Awards project called Luce back in 2020. The proven collaboration shown on this project makes us confident that this biopic will be unmissable.
The film is being produced Endevour Content. According to an article on Variety, it will be titled Samo Lives and, "will celebrate the life, career and impact of the groundbreaking New York-born, Haitian-Puerto Rican American artist whose seminal paintings and street art defined the Neo-expressionism arts movement of the 1980s."
Jean-Michel Basquiat, the subject of the biopic, is a famous American artist. At the age of 22, he already had an exibit at the Whitney Biennial - making him the youngest artist to have an exhibit there.
While he blazed brightly at an incredibly young age, he also died too soon. Basquiat passed away at the age of 27 on August 12, 1988. After his death, however, his briliant art lived on. In 2017, his piece Untitled sold for $110.5 Million at Sothebys.
One of his other works, Versus Medici, is shown below. The impressive life and career of this artist will be captured in this upcoming biopic.
Onah's heart is in this project. He remarked:
Jean-Michel Basquiat redefined the idea of who ascends to the highest altitudes of the fine art world. But the complexity and richness of his experience as an artist and child of the African diaspora has yet to be dramatized in the manner it deserves...It's an honor to work with Kelvin and my collaborators, and with Endeavor Content, to celebrate the legacy of an artist who has invited audiences everywhere to be inspired by the transformative power of art.
We can't wait to see this passion project come to life!
