Frank Ocean and Director Luca Guadagnino Had a Secret Project in the Works

Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino shared some exciting news recently: He had been working on a “secret project” for new Frank Ocean music.

The Call Me by Your Name director confirmed the joint effort during an interview with New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan, stating: “We were collaborating on a music video that never happened. I use the Times to launch an appeal to Frank: Frank, let’s do that video. Come on.”

Buchanan’s interview with Guadagnino has yet to be published, so it’s unclear if he provided any additional details about their collaboration. The conversation primarily focused on the director’s upcoming HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are, starring Kid Cudi, Chloë Sevigny, Alice Braga, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jordan Kristine Seamon, Spence Moore II, and more.

Ocean has not released a full-length project since 2016’s Blonde. He has, however, gifted fans with a couple of 2020 singles called “Dear April” and “Cayendo.” In a 2019 interview with W magazine, Ocean touched on some of the themes and sounds he was exploring with his new music. The Grammy-winning artist said he wanted to offer something that was closer to fantasy than truth.

“I believed for a very long time that there was strength in vulnerability, and I really don’t believe that anymore. ‘Strength’ and ‘vulnerability’ sound opposite as words,” he said. “And so to combine them sounds wise, but I don’t know if it is wise. It’s just this realization that hit me: ‘Oh, right, it’s a choice whether you will be truthful or a liar.’ If I start to tell a story and then I decide not to tell the story anymore, I can stop. It’s my story. The expectation for artists to be vulnerable and truthful is a lot, you know?—when it’s no longer a choice. Like, in order for me to satisfy expectations, there needs to be an outpouring of my heart or my experiences in a very truthful, vulnerable way. I’m more interested in lies than that. Like, give me a full motion-picture fantasy.”