Update: Léa Seydoux has joined the cast, per Deadline. Find the original story below.
With just a few weeks to go until Luca Guadagnino’s delayed feature Challengers finally hits screens, he’s looking to reteam with his star Josh O’Connor on a new project. Guadagnino, who already has his next feature in the can with the Daniel Craig-led adaptation Queer, seems to line up no shortage of potential projects, but according to reports, this one will be fast-tracked quickly.
Variety and La Repubblica report O’Connor will lead the queer romance Separate Rooms, an adaptation of Pier Vittorio Tondelli’s 1989 novel following an Italian writer who is mourning the loss of his boyfriend and begins a relationship with a German musician. Tondelli died at the age of 36 from AIDS-related causes. Scripted by Francesca Manieri (We Are Who We Are), it would mark another Italian production for O’Connor following Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera, which finally opens in the U.S. this week.
Here’s the synopsis for what Guadagnino calls a dream project: “In Separate Rooms, 30-something Leo travels across Milan, Paris, London and Florence, while Thomas is a young Berlin-based pianist who is temporarily living in Paris when he first intersects with Leo. The book is divided into three parts, called “movements,” which alternate between flashbacks and reflections. After meeting in Paris, the lovers begin a long affair, meeting and traveling together in different European cities over a three-year period. The two meet when they wish, but live separately, secluding themselves in their respective loneliness, though they often write each other. At one point, Thomas starts an affair with a girl, which makes Leo deeply jealous. Then Thomas is diagnosed with an illness that will lead to his death in his hometown of Munich.”
See O’Connor below in the trailers for his latest pair of features.