Sartaj Singh
The two-time Grammy Award-winning artist Frank Ocean has started shooting his feature directorial debut! After years of breadcrumbs and speculation, the filming of ‘Philly’ has begun on October 24 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mexico City, Mexico. Ocean also wrote the screenplay. Taylor Russell headlines the cast.
The film is loosely based on an acclaimed Grammy Award-winning artist’s real-life experiences and the real people surrounding him. The narrative explores the strong friendships and relationships he relied on and was shaped by, the painful emotions and experiences he went through, the power of creativity and connection, and ultimately, the beauty and meaning that comes as we live in full expression. The project is described as a free-form, non-traditional narrative movie with real and surreal elements.
‘Philly’ has been in the making for years, with very little verifiable information available to the press and the public. In late 2022, it was reported that Ocean was in talks with A24 and 2AM. The project was likely delayed due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike and the artist headlining Coachella 2023. In August 2024, he was spotted scouting locations in Mexico City, including the campus of Universidad Intercontinental, a private university.
Considering Ocean’s reported admiration for coming-of-age films, there is a possibility that the upcoming work will belong to the same genre. The artist has a wide-ranging appetite for new ventures. His fans have even made a running joke about his new albums or undertakings rarely reaching fruition because he is always seemingly working on new projects. Thankfully, the same cannot be said for ‘Philly’ anymore.
The closest Ocean has gotten to filmmaking before this point has been directing and starring in his music videos such as ‘Pyramids,’ ‘Swim Good,’ and ‘Novacane.’ He also contributed to the soundtrack of many notable productions, including Denzel Washington’s ‘Safe House,’ Netflix’s ‘The Old Guard,’ and the iconic ‘The Great Gatsby.’
Russell is known for playing Maren in Luca Guadagnino’s coming-of-age road-trip movie ‘Bones and All,’ starring Timothée Chalamet. The actress also played Judy Robinson in the Netflix series ‘Lost in Space’ and Emily in the drama film ‘Waves.’
Mexico City is an interesting shooting location as it has rapidly evolved into a modernized filmmaking hub over the past few decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, it largely served as a filming destination for adventure films and Westerns like ‘The Magnificent Seven,’ ‘The Mask of Zorro,’ and ‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.’ In recent years, the region hosted the production of ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,’ ‘Gringo,’ ‘We Are the Nobles,’ and ‘Blink Twice.’ New Orleans previously hosted the filming of Netflix’s ‘Rebel Ridge’ and the absurdist film ‘Kinds of Kindness.’
Read More: Paramount’s ‘Children of Blood and Bone’ Begins Filming in Lagos in February
