The Man On The Moon is headed back to Hollywood. Deadline reports that Kid Cudi has been cast in the upcoming opioid crisis drama Dreamland playing an FDA investigator looking into pharmaceutical companies’ claims that their addictive products are actually safe. He joins an all-star cast which features Gary Oldman, Armie Hammer, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sam Worthington.
While Cudi made some early forays into acting in television shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Cleveland Show, and most notably, the HBO comedy-drama How To Make It In America, this will be one of his first major dramatic roles — not counting 2014’s Need For Speed adaptation, which should be forgotten by all parties involved.
Dreamland will follow a number of characters involved with America’s growing and scary opioid addiction epidemic, from Armie Hammer’s fentanyl-trafficking drug runner to Gary Oldman’s professor who gets wrapped up in some illicit dealings thanks to his former employers at a pharmaceutical company.
The film is shooting in Montreal with a projected release date sometime in 2020. Cudi, of all people, is probably one of the most true-to-life casting choices the film’s producers could make. He’s been open about his struggles with mental health and addiction in recent years at a time when more entertainers than ever appear to share those struggles, including the late Lil Peep and Mac Miller, both of whom died from Fentanyl overdoses.
