Kid Cudi (aka Scott Mescudi) and his recently launched Mad Solar banner are developing an adaptation of the coming-of-age campus novel Real Life, with Mescudi set to star.
Bron Studios acquired the rights to the 2020 Booker Prize-shortlisted novel with Mad Solar, which was launched last month with backing from Bron. Under the pact, Bron will provide the shingle with production support, including financing, marketing and sales.
Real Life is the semi-autobiographical novel debut for writer Brandon Taylor. It follows an introverted, queer, Black scientist in a predominantly white, Midwestern PhD program as he navigates complex friendships, romantic relationships, betrayals and mercies, all over the course of one weekend.
Taylor is also set to adapt his for the screen.
Mad Solar, which is run by Mescudi, Dennis Cummings and Karina Manashil, will produce. Kevin Turen will produce on behalf of Bron and Bron chairman Aaron L. Gilbert will executive produce.
Taylor, who is the senior editor of Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading column and a staff writer at Literary Hub, is repped by WME and DeFiore and Company.
Mescudi, repped by WME and McKuin Frankel, was most recently seen in the HBO series We Are Who We Are from Luca Guadagnino and is set for Adam McKay’s splashy Netflix feature Don’t Look Up. Mad Solar’s slate includes the Netflix animated series Entergalactic, which Mescudi co-created alongside Kenya Barris.
This story was originally published in The Hollywood Reporter.