Big questions abound after the world premiere of “Bones And All” last week at the Venice Film Festival. For one, will Luca Guadagnino‘s latest win the Golden Lion? The movie vies against the likes of “The Banshees Of Inisherin” and others for Venice’s top prize, but “Bones And All” remains a favorite. But after that mystery gets solved on Saturday on the Lido, another question lingers: what does Guadagnino want to do next? And no, “Challengers,” Guada’s tennis romantic comedy with Zendaya out next year, doesn’t count as an answer.
EW reports (via IndieWire) that Guadagnino’s answer is one his fans won’t be surprised at: he still wants to do a sequel to 2017’s “Call Me By Your Name” with Timothée Chalamet returning as Elio. Except don’t call Guada’s follow-up a sequel. “A sequel is an American concept,” the director said in a recent interview at the Telluride Film Festival. “It’s more like the chronicles of Elio, the chronicles of this young boy becoming a man. It is something I want to do.”
Guadagnino’s comments should shock nobody. Since the release of the 2017 film, the director has been very vocal about how much he’d like to make another movie with Chalamet’s character. Just last year, Guada told Deadline, “The truth of the matter is, my heart is still there, but I’m working on this movie [“Bones and All”] now, and I’m hopefully going to do “Scarface” soon, and I have many projects and so will focus on this side of the Atlantic and the movies I want to make.” Earlier than that, Guadagnino mentioned in an interview with Italian publication Gay It! that he had plans to meet with a writer he loves “very much” about penning the sequel after screenwriter James Ivory said he wouldn’t return.
The fallout between Guadagnino and Ivory is just one of the roadblocks in the way of a new “Call Me” chapter. Of course, the most sordid one is Chalamet’s disgraced co-star Armie Hammer, whose acting career is likely over thanks to the sexual assault allegations against him. But Guadagnino could easily not have Hammer’s Oliver return in the new movie to avoid affiliation with the actor. And since “Call Me” hit theaters, writer André Aciman, who wrote the original 2007 novel, wrote a sequel of his own to the story, 2019’s “Call Me.” Guadagnino could perhaps use Aciman’s novel as a reference point, working with another screenwriter, and trim out anything involving Hammer/Oliver.
What’s most telling about Guadagnino’s comments is that his creative partnership with Chalamet is far from over. “It’s not as if I left Timothée at the height of his booming success, and then I found him four years later,” Guadagnino told IndieWire. “We kept close. I knew that there was not much time to wait until we worked together, but only for the right project.” So, has Chalamet replaced Tilda Swinton as Guadagnino’s new muse? Perhaps. But even better, how about Swinton also show up somehow for the further adventures of Elio?
Follow The Playlist’s coverage of the Venice Film Festival to find out if “Bones And All” wins the Golden Lion this weekend. After a run through the Fall festival circuit, the film hits US theaters on November 23.