THR Reports:

Hip-hop artist Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi has joined Aaron Paul in DreamWorks’ racing action pic Need for Speed.

Also joining the adaptation of the Electronic Arts video game are Ramon Rodriguez, Rami Malek and Harrison Gilbertson.

Dominic Cooper and Imogen Poots are already on board the production, which has been dated for release Feb. 7, 2014. Scott Waugh, one half of the Act of Valor helming team, is directing.

The company has said it’s aiming for the tone of the car-culture films of the 1970s. The story sees Paul play a local street racer who, after being framed for the death of a friend, joins a New York-to-Los Angeles race to get revenge.

Cudi will play a member of the racer’s crew.
Mescudi, a record producer and singer-songwriter who has worked with Kanye West and David Guetta, made his acting debut on HBO’s How to Make It in America and recently wrapped Two Night Stand, an indie romantic comedy produced by Beau Flynn and Ruben Fleischer.

The multihypenate, repped by WME and Leverage Management, also has contributed to soundtracks for Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games and DreamWorks’ Fright Night.

PARTNER LINKS: