Travis Scott is going Hollywood. The Houston rapper’s fourth album, Utopia, comes out July 28, and he announced that it will be released alongside a companion film, titled Circus Maximus. In true Travis Scott fashion, the movie won’t have one director, but is instead the product of a seemingly unwieldy collaboration. The film will incorporate six different directors, starting with Scott himself, alongside names like Harmony Korine, Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding-Refn, and Kahlil Joseph.
“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,” reads the official synopsis from AMC Theaters. “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.”
Despite Cactus Jack agreeing to a production deal with A24 back in August 2021 and the company’s logo appearing on a poster, A24 told Variety they are not involved in Circus Maximus. Back in 2021, Scott posted a picture of the script’s first draft on his Instagram, which featured several references to A24 on the cover page.
Somewhat confusingly, news of Circus Maximus was solidified the same day it was reported that Scott would star in a separate Harmony Korine film project, Aggro Dr1ft, which is premiering out-of-competition at the Venice International Film Festival. Korine shot the cover of Scott’s Jackboys compilation, which invoked the director’s beloved Spring Breakers with its neon green ski masks. It’s unclear whether Circus Maximus will be a series of interconnected music videos (like Beyoncé’s Lemonade, which Joseph worked on), a non-musical anthology, a single narrative project featuring multiple directors, or something else entirely.
Scott shared a trailer via social media on July 25, featuring evocative images of the rapper performing, Renaissance paintings, and high-speed car chases, though it contained little in the way of actual plot details. In a 2021 interview with L’Officiel, Scott likened his taste in movies to “a big pot of gumbo,” citing No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Breakfast Club and Flubber, as some of his favorites. Per Scott’s website, Circus Maximus will be released nationwide in AMC theaters, with “additional screenings TBA.”