Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey are set to star in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. (Cindy Ord/Victor Boyko/Getty Photographs)
Challengers director Luca Guadagnino is the king of smouldering LGBTQ+ cinematic need and his forthcoming movie Queer, with Daniel Craig on the helm, isn’t any totally different.
From Name Me By Your Title to We Are Who We Are – and, in fact, “deeply sexy” new movie Challengers – the Italian director has repeatedly centered on queer thematics as he portrays burning, heady romances.
Queer is about to have its world premiere later this yr – some anticipate this may occasionally happen on the 2024 Venice Movie Competition which takes place from 28 August to 7 September.
Filming happened final yr – taking pictures was divided between Rome, Italy and Quito, Ecuador – and wrapped in June 2023.
What’s the plot of Queer?
With Queer, Guadagnino has got down to adapt William S. Burroughs’ brief novel of the identical identify. The e book is semi-autobiographical and a partial sequel to Junkie – it was initially written in 1952 however not revealed until 1985.
Queer follows the story of Lee (who can be performed by the ex-James Bond actor) as he navigates life in Mexico Metropolis. Lee jumps from bar to bar within the American expatriate scene in pursuit of fulfilling sexual encounters.
Within the e book, which is written with self-deprecating black humour, Lee descends right into a downward spiral and he turns into madly infatuated with Allerton, a younger discharged American Navy serviceman.
Who will star in Queer?
Taking part in a queer character isn’t new floor for Craig. The 56-year-old actor beforehand starred in Knives Out sequel Glass Onion as homosexual detective Benoit Blanc, who’s married to Philip (performed by Hugh Grant).
It’s been reported that Outer Banks star Drew Starkey will play Allerton.
The Crown’s Lesley Manville, Asteroid Metropolis’s Jason Schwartzman and The New Mutant’s Henry Saga are additionally set to star within the movie.
Guadagnino’s iteration of Queer isn’t the primary time the e book was set to translate to the display screen. In 2011, Steve Buscemi was set to direct an adaptation starring Stanley Tucci and Ben Foster however the challenge by no means acquired off the bottom.
For the 2024 Queer adaptation, American playwright Justin Kuritzkes (who wrote Guadagnino’s Challengers) has penned the difference.
Moreover, British designer Jonathan Anderson (who additionally labored on Challengers) – has made a reputation for himself on this planet of vogue with creations for Loewe and his personal JW Anderson label – can be dealing with Queer’s costumes.
Upon wrapping filming on Queer, Anderson posted on Instagram a picture of Starkey with a centipede necklace.
The caption learn: “It began off as a legendary novel and was birthed right into a hanging movie with a bunch of individuals lead by Luca Guadagnino.
“This movie will change you. And as a logo of QUEER transformation the centipede takes centre stage.”
When does Challengers come out?
Guadagnino’s tennis drama, Challengers, is the director’s newest launch. The movie is out in UK cinemas from Friday 26 April 2024.
The sexy drama follows the tense, steamy love triangle between Tashi (Zendaya), Artwork (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh O’Connor).
Tashi, a star tennis participant turned coach, has turned her husband Artwork right into a grand slam champion.
Nonetheless, the couple’s relationship is thrown into turmoil as Artwork finds himself in competitors in opposition to his former greatest pal and Tashi’s former boyfriend.
Tensions run excessive because the previous collides with the current in Guadagnino’s non-chronological narrative the place bisexual vitality reigns supreme.
Guadanino’s cinematic speciality is the nuance of desire-laden obsession. The 52-year-old homosexual director is famend for his unofficial movie ‘trilogy of need’ that consists of I Am Love, A Greater Splash and Name Me By Your Title.
Challengers is maybe an addition, making this trilogy a tetralogy. Queer may additionally grow to be a part of Guadagninio’s desire-focused movie assortment.