After not making a feature film for half-a-decade, director Luca Guadagnino is on quite a productive streak recently. His reunion with Tilda Swinton after I Am Love, the highly recommended A Bigger Splash, is now in theaters, and he plans to shoot his remake of Suspiria this fall. In between, he’s quietly begun production on a new feature.
Although there was no formal announcement, it’s been revealed to be an adaptation of André Aciman‘s novel Call Me By Your Name. Scripted by James Ivory and the director, it follows a 17-year-old boy who begins a romance with his father’s house guest. Taking the role of the boy is Interstellar star Timothée Chalamet while Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man) plays his father and Armie Hammer (who will soon be seen in Ben Wheatley‘s Free Fire and Tom Ford‘s Nocturnal Animals) takes the role of the house guest.
With filming already underway as of two weeks ago — Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Arabian Nights, Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives) will serve as DP — Guadagnino has promised “plenty of nudity,” which is no surprise if you’ve seen his latest work. “One of the biggest inspiration is the 1983 movie A nos amours by Maurice Pialat and if you watch it, it has nothing of that somewhat stupid idea of big shoulders, big stripes and big hair,” he tells WWD.
As we await more details, one can see the official synopsis below. One can also pick up the book here and see the director’s top 10 films here.
Mid 1980’s. North of Italy not far from the Garda Lake. The sensitive and cultivated 17-year-old Elio, an only child of the American-Italian Perlman family, is facing another lazy summer at his parents’ villa when Oliver arrives. Oliver is an academic who comes to help Elio’s father, an eminent professor and specialist in Greek culture, with his work. The visitor will be their guest for the next six weeks during the summer. A charming 24-year-old American scholar, Oliver is breezy, spontaneous, handsome, and he’s the kind of person who charms everyone he meets. The meeting of these two young men sets in motion the danger of an unbridled adolescent passion in the setting of the beautiful and languid Italian countryside.
Call Me By Your Name will likely premiere next year. [I Love Italian Movies/My New Plaid Pants]