The Weeknd has seen a lot of remarkable success for his new album Hurry Up Tomorrow this year, and he has even more cooking. The psychological thriller of the same name – directed, cowritten, and edited by Trey Edward Schults – is rapidly approaching its theatrical release.
However, during a recent interview with Fandango, Abel Tesfaye made a key revelation. Apparently, the Hurry Up Tomorrow universe began life as this upcoming movie, and it was only later that he decided to make it a full album.
"The film came first, the album didn't exist," The Weeknd said of his upcoming movie. "So this music, we were scoring and I guess writing music to picture. The idea came from a real life incident that had happened. And I always saw it as a film."
"First, it started just, like, Abel had this idea, and we were both connecting over that," Trey Edward Schults added. "And then [we] got creative juju and super inspired and excited and bouncing back and forth. And then, naturally, influences started filtering in. You know, it ranged Persona to Raging Bull to Purple Rain to Audition and you name it."
When Is Hurry Up Tomorrow Coming Out?
Of course, this makes a lot of sense when you consider the cinematic quality of the Hurry Up Tomorrow album. It might seem impossible to work "backwards" like this for such a polished release, but we'll have to wait until the film comes out in theaters on May 16 to see the full vision.
In addition, it seems like the team behind this Hurry Up Tomorrow "franchise" wants to continue to expand on the connections between speakers and the screen. For example, The Weeknd's new "Drive" music video is a teaser of sorts for the upcoming movie. Jenna Ortega makes an appearance and Trey Edward Schults directed the visuals.
With more Hurry Up Tomorrow teases to take stock of, it's only a matter of time before we finally get to see these hints and snippets fully come to life, complement the album, and vice versa. Will this go the route of The Idol or prove the Toronto superstar is an EGOT challenger? We can't wait to find out.
