Ready to expand your theatergoing experience to encompass “Scottieheimer”? Hip-hop artist Travis Scott has a feature film going into theaters this weekend. He announced the release of “Circus Maximus” through a tweet (or rather, an X), revealing poster art of himself on a motorcycle and taking writer-director credit, although a release about the film also lists five other famous names as “additional directors”: Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding-Refn, Harmony Korine, Valdimar Jóhannsson and Kahlil Joseph.
Just who is behind the film is a mystery, though. An A24 logo appears on the poster art Scott put out, attributing the company as the film’s producer, yet asked about the project by Variety, the company says the movie is not actually theirs.
Whether the film is a narrative movie or an omnibus of connected music videos remains to be explained, too, although the long list of directors would point toward the latter. There is also a 32-second trailer for the film, which does not include any credits or distribution information, consisting of wildly disparate shots of Travis in exotic locations or cabs careening through city streets.
AMC theater listings confirm the running time and indicate the film will be showing in select theaters in a sporadic release pattern. L.A.-area listings show a single run time on Thursday, as promised in the tease, along with additional showings — also once a day — on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Thursday night premiere on big screens will roughly coincide with the release of Scott’s long-promised new album, “Utopia,” at the crack of midnight ET on Friday morning.
The film’s description on the AMC chain’s website says: “Prepare to enter ‘Circus Maximus’ as Travis Scott takes his audience on a mind-bending visual odyssey across the globe, woven together by the speaker rattling sounds of his highly anticipated upcoming album ‘Utopia.’ The film is a surreal and psychedelic journey, uniting a collective of visionary filmmakers from around the world in a kaleidoscopic exploration of human experience and the power of soundscapes.”
Hiring five top filmmakers to co-direct a film (or be “additional directors”) is not the only unusually ambitious enterprise Scott has undertaken recently. He is set to do a concert in front of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt this Friday; the event will be livestreamed. The Egyptian Musicians Syndicate had indicated that the show would have to be canceled, but Live Nation announced it would go on as scheduled.
“Utopia” is Scott’s first album since 2018’s “Astroworld.” A single, “K-Pop,” featuring the Weeknd and Bad Bunny, was released last week.
As the music and film worlds wonder what’s really up with the film — A24 presumably included — Scott suggested that more info may have to wait. “We will talk more when I get better service lmaoooo,” he X-ed Tuesday afternoon.