Finding Elio on October 29th

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(illustration via) Can't believe it's taken me this far into the day to post about the news that came out last night on the Call Me By Your Name sequel... specifically the book sequel, that is. Coming hot on the heels of Armie Hammer crapping on the movie sequel this is something! We've known for awhile now that André Aciman was cooking up something fresh and juicy for Elio & Co. -- I posted video of him at a Q&A here in New York admitting as much several months ago -- but now we know what's what thanks to a press release via his publisher. The book will be called Find Me, it will be released on October 29th of this very year (!!!), and here's the plot:

“In ‘Find Me,’ Aciman shows us Elio’s father Samuel, now divorced, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train leads to a relationship that changes Sami’s life definitively. Elio soon moves to Paris where he too has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a professor in northern New England with sons who are nearly grown, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return visit to Europe.”

I bet Michael Stuhlbarg was happy reading this! Amira Casar, notsomuch. Why you gotta do Annella like that, André??? Vulture also got a quote from Aciman on all this:

“The world of ‘Call Me by Your Name’ never left me. Though I created the characters and was the author of their lives, what I never expected was that they’d end up teaching me things about intimacy and about love that I didn’t quite think I knew until I’d put them down on paper. The film made me realize that I wanted to be back with them and watch them over the years — which is why I wrote ‘Find Me.’"

Every time I've heard Aciman talk about the experience watching the film he's seemed tremendously moved by what Guadagnino & Stuhlbarg did with Elio's father so I'm not surprised that he was drawn to exploring Sami's life a little more -- he's spoken eloquently about the ambiguity in some of the character's final words to Elio, about how he's never known the sort of love that Elio & Oliver knew.

But it doesn't sound like he'll be skimping on details of everybody's lives -- unlike the book of CMBYN, which was told entirely from Elio's perspective, it sounds like Find Me will be coming at us from several points of view, spanning the globe. What do we think?

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EXCLUSIVE FOOTAGE OF ANDRE ACIMAN WRITING THE CALL ME BY YOUR NAME SEQUEL pic.twitter.com/XUUUUz8eSM

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) March 21, 2019

Let's Do the Peach Scene Again

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The screen was small and the audience, uh, cumbersome...

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The old couple beside me at this CALL ME BY YOUR NAME screening said three things to each other over the course of the film, and I am not even kidding:

1 - “He’s gay?”
2 - “He has beautiful feet.”
3 - “Is that a peach?”

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 12, 2018

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... but I did indeed get to see Call Me By Your Name in the theater - as long as one defines "theater" as a room with several rows of seats bolted to the floor and a screen pulled down in front of them - one more time last night, which brings my total number of public screenings to... nineteen, I think? I think I made it to eighteen before the film left theaters last spring.

I have, naturally, also watched the blu-ray half a dozen times since then though, so this experience wasn't exactly revelatory - it might have been with better surroundings (oh to have my front-row seat at The Paris one more time) but I am thankful to the folks at NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò for doing what some smart art-house would be wise to figure out, which is that the audience is there for semi-regular screenings of this movie. The line last night was out the door, which, well, granted Andre Aciman was there for a Q&A after the film. But CMBYN has still got an enthusiastic cult and we will show up. Anyway as I mentioned Aciman was there and if you missed it here's video of him giving a little more information on that "sequel" (although he doesn't like that word) that he just recently made headlines about:
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Here is the ever charming Andre Aciman talking about what he is working on CALL ME BY YOUR NAME sequel or sideways sequel or whatever you want to call it wise #CallMeByYourName @aaciman #TimotheeChalamet #ArmieHammer @armiehammer @RealChalamet pic.twitter.com/nESaUV6SHe

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) December 12, 2018

Call Me By Your Phantom Boyhood

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You might've seen me joke on Twitter about how the press released for this was suggestively worded but Armie Hammer was honored by the the Texas Film Awards in Austin yesterday and his good pal Timothée Chalamet showed up to do the honoring, and also Richard Linklater & Paul Thomas Anderson were there too? I don't know and since I didn't did to go I don't want to look up the specifics - all we need to know is that picture happened and it makes me smile. IndieWire talked to Armie right over here - the choicest bit is about the Call Me By Your Name sequel (any interview any of these people give until this happens this will always be the choicest bit):

"Dude, [Luca] broke down the whole script for us... I mean, it’s not a finished script, but he’s got all the ideas for it. Luca’s all gung-ho about it, and by the way, if Luca’s doing it, I think we’re all gung-ho about it.”

André Aciman is doing a reading here in NYC tonight and I plan on going - I have my copy of the book for him to sign! - and hopefully he'll give good quote about the sequel too, stay tuned for that. Anyway don't forget - Call Me By Your Name hits blu-ray on Tuesday! You'll know it's out because you'll never hear from me ever again.

Call Me Timothée Or Call Me Death

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Having been laid up sick for the past couple of days I missed most of the chatter about the Oscar nominations (although thanks to those of you who shared your requested thoughts on the post I posted from my death-bed!) but you might have caught me yapping anyway if you were over at The Film Experience - those of us who contribute to the sight offered up a few opinions in the aftermath in a pair of posts. 

Right here you can read what we all we pissed off about, snub-wise. And right here you can read what we were the opposite of that, aka the piss was sucked back up in and making out hearts warm. That sounds like something dangerous? Oh jeez guys I am still not 100% well, expect weirdness from me today I guess. Anyway all of my answers were about Call Me By Your Name because what else would you expect? Me gotta me.

ETA oh wait since we've got the guys here I should mention this news that broke whilst I was away -- in a chat with Collider Luca gave us a little bit more info about the CMBYN sequel, although I think we might've heard this much before? I don't know, I've read so many damn interviews with these guys at this point...

"I believe that I will end up making a cycle of films about these characters because I love them so much. And I think their experience of life is ripe for many, many adventures.... I think the next chapter it will be happening right after the fall of Berlin wall and that great shift that was the end of Russia, of the USSR, sorry. And we’ll see people leaving home and going in the world. That’s what I can say for now."

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Call Me By Your Tomorrow

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It didn't feel real until Amazon just sent me the shipping notice but it's real -- Call Me By Your Name hits blu-ray TOMORROW, you guys! Say your goodbyes, you're never hearing from me again! I kid, I kid, the movie's been online for a bit now and I'm still finding things to prattle about - I'm just excited to finally get my eyeballs + ear-holes on some of those extras. And speaking of eyeballs + ear-holes...

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Andre Aciman reading some of the father’s speech in CALL ME BY YOUR NAME #callmebyyourname #cmbyn #andreaciman

A post shared by Jason Adams (@jasonaadams) on Mar 9, 2018 at 4:52pm PST

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... Angels in America wasn't the only awesome (gay) thing I got done this weekend; I also got to see CMBYN author André Aciman do a reading/Q&A and that was quite the night itself. It was my second time seeing him talk (previously I saw him & Luca Guadagnino at an event together) and he seems as overjoyed with the past year's business as ever. He only did a few minutes of reading - he really wanted to answer questions, and he did for a very long time.

He didn't have anything to say about the sequel, which was the very first question - he said it will be a few years before they've ironed that out. But he did tell a delightful story about how the title and the idea behind it came about (which is something I tried to dive into one time); I didn't take video of it but he apparently repeated the story at a different Q&A so here that is (thx Mac):
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I'm not surprised that it was something so practical - that's how these things usually work out. Life's greatest mysteries usually present themselves when we display just the slightest bit of curiosity towards our surroundings. On that note, A NEW VINTAGE TIMMY RAPPING VIDEO HAS SURFACED!!!
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A Call Me By Your Name Mystery

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A post shared by Sony Pictures Classics (@sonyclassics)

This post's title has me imagining a series of CMYBN sequel books where Elio becomes a Jessica Fletcher type, solving mysteries around gorgeous rural Italy while fucking peaches on the side -- needless to say I would read the hell out of that series. But the actual 'Call Me By Your Name' Mystery is why the Sony Classics Instagram account posted the above video this afternoon with the caption "Tomorrow..." It's not any sort of CMBYN anniversary -- personally I'm thinking they might be announcing a standalone copy of the film in 4K. It's already gotten a 4K release inside of Sony's great big box-set alongside a pile of other amazing movies, but it is really overdue its own separate release. Maybe even one with a bunch of new special features! That would rule. It is crazy to realize that the movie is turning 10 in January, counting from its premiere at Sundance in January of 2017. A standalone 4K in time for that 10th anniversary makes a lot of sense. But who knows! Could be something else. I have no idea what that would be (a new vinyl of the soundtrack?) but I guess we'll find out tomorrow! I have long given up on a sequel ever happening. Although I did discover, while looking around just now, that a graphic novel of André Aciman's book IS coming out this August, which was news to me. I don't think that's what Sony is posting about but we'll see. Anyway that's out August 11th and you can pre-order it right here. The slutty anime cover-art is sending me lol: 

The Lovely Bones

Timothée Chalamet and the Bones and All crew are all on the cover of Variety this week and there's a big interview with everybody worth a read, and even better the photoshoot is a good one -- after a couple of shoots that were too much too much (see here for prime example) this basic black leather and bountiful curls look is sending me, truly. There are several choice bits from the interview that are vital, I really recommend reading the entire thing, but because I'm me I will quote Luca saying something new on the possibility of his Call Me By Your Name sequel:

"I would love to make a second and third and fourth chapter of all my movies,” Guadagnino says. “Why? Because I truly love the actors I work with, so I want to repeat the joy of doing what we did together.” However, when it comes to “Call Me by Your Name,” Guadagnino says, “there is no hypothesis, so there is no movie. It’s a wish and a desire, and I have not made up my mind about what would be the story.” When asked if the film could still include Hammer’s character, he says, “Yeah, of course.” Then he presents another potential storyline for a sequel — following Mafalda, the housekeeper, played by Vanda Capriolo, who resides in Elio’s family’s summer home. “Which is divine,” he says. “I would be very interested in seeing what is the life of Mafalda when she’s not around the family.”

The Mafalda movie! LOL this man just says anything, no filter, and I love him for it. I think like ten people, including both Luca and me, would be excited about a Mafalda movie. But I say bring it on. Anyway I've got the rest of the Variety photos alongside a couple of Bones and All set photos that Timmy posted on his Insta today for y'all after the jump...

Luca Lines Up Our Futures

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Salt-n-peppered stealth sex-bomb Luca Guadanino has been giving some good chats recently where he's dropped info about his exact next project as well as the Call Me By Your Name sequel -- for more on what his next project will be click on over to The Film Experience where I just wrote all that up. 

But as for the latter, the much boo-hooed CMYBN sequel (which I'm personally repeatedly on the record being just fine with thank you very much), Luca got a little more precise with his intentions an in Italian interview (which you can watch right here if you speak Italian) -- it's going to have Elio bumping into Oliver in Paris some years later. 

"I’m asking myself if in the new chapter of the life of Elio, Oliver and the Perlman family we should let them pass by Crema or not… but I don’t think so. Let’s give a small scoop: the sequel (but I don’t like to call it a sequel, their story is a ‘cycle’) will take place in Paris. And it begins with Elio crying. With this light shining into his eyes… and we wonder: are we still where we left him (in front of the fireplace)? No: he’s crying because he’s watching the ending of one of the best movies of the eighties, Paul Vecchiali’s masterpiece ‘Once More / Encore.’ Absolutely consistent with the character: Elio loves Paul Vecchiali’s cinema… that is melancholic like him.”

(thx Mac) He's spoken about the Vecchiali movie before, since the film's about AIDS and that got everybody all paranoid that this movie would give everybody AIDS or something, I don't know, people on the internet like to wring their hands about things they don't know anything about yet a lot. I personally am willing to put some faith in a filmmaker that's yet to let me down, but that apparently makes me an insane outlier. Anyway can somebody find a copy of the Vecchiali movie for me to watch? I can't find it anywhere!

Quote of the Day

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Now that Luca Guadagnino is done hanging out with Synonyms stud Tom Mercier in Paris for their Fashion Week -- Mercier stars in Luca's forthcoming HBO series We Are What We Are, talked about previously here -- he's headed over to Sundance for a doc about truffle farmers that he produced (sure why not). Deadline chatted with him there (thx Mac) and asked him what he's planning on this year, and he came up with lots:

"“I’m putting all my focus and concentration into We Are Who We Are and Born To Be Murdered,” he says. He is producing the latter, a Greece-set thriller about a vacationing couple, played by John David Washington and Alicia Vikander, who fall trap to a violent conspiracy. “I’m very enthusiastic about the film. It’s going to be a wonderful, passionate surprise.”

The Suspiria and I Am Love director says a busy schedule has left less time for writing over the past two years, but that the sequel to Call Me By Your Name remains on the agenda. “I’ve spoken about my ideas to Timothée [Chalamet] and Armie [Hammer] and we’re all eager.”

Blood On The Tracks, a project inspired by Bob Dylan’s seminal 1975 album, and Warner Bros’ Lord Of The Flies update, are two of the movies that could come together in 2020, he says. The writing process is starting on the latter, and the former is still being put together, he explains.

I previously posted about that Born To Be Murdered project right here -- this is being directed by Luca's partner Ferdinando Cito Filomarino, who's also a director. And you can read my post on Luca's possible Lord of the Flies movie here. Hey speaking of Luca & Flies remember all of the flies in Call Me By Your Name?

There was a fly in that scene that that gif doesn't get across, you'll just have to believe me. (Nobody's thinking about flies anymore, are they?) Anyway I was just recently saying (here) that I'd embraced my status as one of the last true believers that a CMBYN sequel would still happen so it's good to see I share that space with, you know, the director himself.
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Quote of the Day

There is a terrific chat with director Luca Guadagnino up at i-D Magazine today that's mostly about his cannibal romance Bones and All (out in theaters on November 18th, here is my review!) but also some on his upcoming tennis movie Challengers with Josh O'Connor and Zendaya and Mike Faist, and also a little about fashion, and oh he also drops this bomb:

ID: Is the festival journey of Bones and All the main thing that’s consuming you right now?

Luca: Well, I’m preparing a new movie. I’m working on my design practice. I am trying to rest. I’m producing other movies.

ID: It’s never just one thing?

Luca: No.

ID: Do you like it that way?

Luca: I think I do, but I also think that maybe one day I’ll change that. To clear my mind.

ID: The new movie you’re working on, do people know anything about it?

Luca: No, no one does. It’s very secret.

ID: At what point do you want to reveal that?

Luca: When the movie is finally done.

Okay so... there's that. Luca's attached himself to so many projects over the past few years this could be anything, up to and including his Call Me By Your Name sequel... although Timmy's schedule is a little heavy for that, so let's not get ahead of ourselves on that front.

Although (cue me getting ahead of myself on that)  all they'd need is a few squirreled away weeks, lord knows. I will flash you back now to the very first post I did on CMBYN in May of 2016 when nobody knew anything about the movie -- it hadn't been announced, nor would anybody much have cared at the time if they had since Timmy wasn't a thing (I barely paid attention to him in that post) and Luca's films were strictly art-house. It was only a blip of a rumor as it shot, and only became a thing in the following months... and yes I like to think my relentless shrieking about it maybe had a little bit of an effect. It's one of my few indulgences, although me that. But hyping my ego aside all I'm really saying here is they managed to shoot the first film without anybody noticing -- it would be harder in 2023-23 but not entirely impossible if that was what they wanted to do.

My honest guess though is this is something smaller -- could be another fashion movie like his short film The Staggering Girl, or could even be another documentary like his Ferragamo doc that came out earlier this month. We will unfortunately just have to wait and see. Still... one does get tickled, thinking about them dropping news of a finished CMBYN sequel out of nowhere. And yes as Luca's said many times his idea for a "sequel" is very different from what we normally associate with the word -- I don't foresee it having much to do with Andre Aicman's book Find Me at all, for one. He just wants to make The Further Adventures of Elio, basically.

I Am Link

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--- Steve Feels Pretty - I don't know how I really feel about this news that Steven Spielberg is remaking West Side Story - I would love to see a Spielberg musical (the musical sequence that opens the 2nd Indiana Jones, the entirety of Catch Me If You Can, all show he'll be good at it!) and he's got a script from no less than Tony Kushner, which is a pretty darn substantial get. But there are lots of musicals that haven't already been turned into masterpieces already - what about making Sunset Boulevard with Glenn Close and Jake Gyllenhaal? What about making Damn Yankees starring Jake Gyllenhaal? My point being JAKE GYLLENHAAL. Oh and in related news Spielberg is making another Indiana Jones. Crazy that that feels like an afterthought!
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--- Sleep Cometh - I have gotten monstrously behind with my reading habits - I need to stop bringing my iPad to bed with me since it sucks up all of my attention during the time I've usually devoted to book stuffs - so I still haven't cracked open Stephen King's sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep even though it's been out for what now, five years? For shame. Perhaps I should now that a movie's been officially announced, and it's a good announcement too - Mike Flanagan, the director of this past year's stupendous King adaptation Gerald's Game (not to mention the perfectly respectable Before I Wake which I just reviewed the other day) is turning it into a movie. If anybody can do it right now he's the one I would bet on.
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--- Kill The Bugs - Paul Verhoeven's brilliantly funny and action-packed Starship Troopers turned 20 this past November - would you like to know more? Then you should click on over to The Guardian where they got some stories from Verhoeven on his often misunderstood intentions with the movie (which I guess people still accuse of blind fascism today? Huh) as well as from actress Denise Richards, who admits she had to convince Paul to cut a pointless topless scene for her character, surprising no one. (Well except that she actually got them to cut it, I guess.)
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--- Big Little Heaven - Shocked I didn't mention this hear already but perhaps you heard this week's news that murdered a million Twitter gays all at once - that Meryl Streep has joined the cast of the second season of Big Little Lies? I mean...
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ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP
ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP
ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP
ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP
ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP
ANDREA ARNOLD DIRECTING MERYL STREEP

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 24, 2018

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... look no further. Yes as we've mentioned before our beloved Andrea Arnold is directing the entire second season, which was enough to immediately wash away any doubts we had about them continuing on for another year after things seemed to wrap up pretty neatly last year. Meryl's just gravy!
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--- Gemma's Hours - Gemma Arterton remains an under-appreciated actress even after she's wowed in several things so I'm excited to hear she's going to play Virginia Woolf's socialite girlfriend in Vita and Virginia, and even more excited to see that it's Elizabeth Debicki (another actress who's always terrific but who hasn't gotten a chance to break out yet) playing Woolf. I'll just try to forget that it was supposed to be Eva Green in Arterton's role, for Arterton's's sake. Oh and if you're wondering who the hell the bearded guy is his name is Peter Ferdinando and he's playing Woolf's husband. Hello!
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--- Let's Go Madd Together - Although I'm annoyed that Darren Aronosfky isn't involved anymore like he was back in 2014 when it was first announced I am pleased to see that there's momentum in getting Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy turned into a series again. The trilogy began in 2004 with the phenomenal Oryx & Crake (by far my favorite, a stunning thing) and then a few years later came the follow-ups The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam. Speaking of things I should read I should give these books another spin. Any fans?

--- Future Sex - Netflix is going to be very kind to those of us who like to stare at hot guys in dystopian future worlds next month - besides the apparent ass-fest that is Altered Carbon with Joel Kinnaman they're also dropping Duncan Jones' new movie Mute in February (thanks Mac) - we showed you some pictures from Mute right here; it stars Alexander Skarsgard, Justin Theroux, and Paul Rudd. I mean really.

--- Speak Clearly - There are so many aspects of moviemaking that don't get talked up enough and it's always a treat to see somebody doing a deep dive on one that I don't really understand so I was tickled by Vulture's recent chat with the dialect coach Liz Himelstein, who has worked with everybody on everything, helping all the stars nail their accents for film and television. Surprising absolutely nobody it turns out that Nicole Kidman works really really hard on her job!

--- And Finally because lord knows we haven't talked about Call Me By Your Name enough (no seriously, never enough) here are a couple of links of interest with regards to the best movie of 2017 -- first off IndieWire talked to RuPaul (who fancies himself a cinephile, and given his taste I'm inclined to agree) about his favorite films of the past year and he couldn't rave enough about CMBYN, including love for Timothee and Michael Stuhlbarg. (thx Mac) And second off CMBYN's author Andre Aciman wrote a little piece for Vanity Fair about his experience seeing his book turned into a movie - anyway he says was there when they filmed the scene around the war memorial that we were just talking about and he shares the name of the town where they filmed it (which I had not heard before) and thus inspired me to make this...
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Here is me reenacting a scene of CALL ME BY YOUR NAME via my cursor on Google Maps #CallMeByYourName pic.twitter.com/FOsmp1JJI0

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 26, 2018

I Am Link

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--- Hulk Out - I was supposed to see Thor Ragnarok last night but I had to abandon my ticket for a work event, boo hoo me. I have it so hard, you guys. But I'm not sure when I'll see it now - this weekend's looking pretty nuts. (See this tweet for confirmation of that.) That said Thor shuffled back up the To-Do list first when I read Chris Hemsworth talk about how many shirtless scenes he's got (apparently Taika really enjoyed getting Chris out of his clothes; use that sentence as you will) and then even more when I read Vulture's Big Breaking Important News Story that this one has Marvel's first nude scene - we get Hulk Butt! Sidenote: I love how furry they've made the Hulk's chest, in keeping with Original Ruffalo. But is Hulk's butt furry? Stay tuned!
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--- Full Cone - The early retrospective of the career of director Stephen Cone so far, which we told you about previously, kicks off today at the Museum of the Moving Image out in Queens with his terrific and lovely latest film Princess Cyd, which we've been telling you to see for several months now. We are on it! Seriously if you're in town you'd be a top shelf fool not to make it out there to something. Anyway The Film Stage chatted with Cone about... well lots of stuff, it's a great peek into a great mind, go read it.
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--- Great Gerwig - I should have linked to this when I posted that clip from Lady Bird earlier today but I spaced on it - anyway you can literally never get too much Greta Gerwig, literally - this profile on her for New York Magazine is top tier stuff, read the shit out of it. She's every ounce the delight we've come to love. In related news The Quad, which is doing that series on Lady Bird's influences that I told you about, just announced that GG will be there in person for the screenings of Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies and (wait for it) Brian DePalma's Carrie! Ahhh! Oh and I haven't read this one yet but here's Greta & Patty Jenkins talking about What Makes Female Directors Great, according to the headline. (thx Mac)
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--- We're All Queer Creeps - I found this personal essay right here about discovering and interpreting one's gayness through the lens of Michael Myers and the original Halloween film really moving and interesting, go read it. Y'all know I'm a proponent of owning the gay villain or as I've dubbed them the Queer Creep, so this fits right in our wheelhouse.
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--- Dancing Boys - First things first I've had that behind-the-scenes video of Armie Hammer (and Timothee & Esther Garrel & Victoire Du Bois, but obviously Armie's the dancing star here) practicing their dancing on the set of Call Me By Your Name for an entire week, maybe longer, and somehow managed to forget to post it - what is the world coming to??? Don't ask me where it came from - somebody posted it on Tumblr but you go try to sort through a week's worth of CMBYN Tumblr, I double peach dare you. Anyway besides that wondrous thing here's a new chat with CMBYN screenwriter and almost-director and forever-legend James Ivory on the movie. He even manages to not bad-mouth Luca's choices this time.
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--- Call Me Leslie - The unjustly ignored in its time and still unjustly overlooked 2006 film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon is getting a big fancy blu-ray edition next year thanks to the wonderful folks at Scream Factory, so maybe we can push this thing into broader consciousness besides just horror nerds then. Still pissed we never got a sequel. But in that vein I guess a comic series called Before the Mask (a prequel, duh) got funded by an online campaign last year and that is indeed coming our way. Don't know how I missed that.
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--- Beale Boys - Barry Jenkins of Moonlight fame is getting his next movie together (a James Baldwin adaptation; we told you about it here) and just hired a couple of very fine looking gentleman for supporting roles - Dave Franco and Ed Skrein will co-star in If Beale Street Could Talk, which is about a young pregnant woman named Tish (played by newcomer Kiki Layne) who is trying to save the life of her boyfriend who's been accused of a crime he didn't commit.
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--- And Finally have you seen the new speedo-stuffed teaser for the upcoming American Crime Story second season called The Assassination of Gianni Versace? Not just any speedo - Darren Criss Speedo. If you missed the pictures of Darren rocking a little red speedo on the set (I doubt you did, but just in case) click here for them. And here's that teaser:
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Quote of the Day

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“I believe that there is sometimes in life the opportunity to meet good people, who are only for the best. And I think it’s very cinematic to follow their stories. I wouldn’t call it a sequel. [The term] sequel is really cold. I admire sequels, but it’s very cold. Like for instance, the sequel to Batman, Batman Returns, it is a masterpiece and it is a sequel. But I don’t see any kind of new episodes [in the lives] of Elio, Oliver and Annella and Isaac and everybody else, as a sequel. I think hopefully it’s gonna be a new chapter in a chronicle and maybe in time we’ll have a box set of the chronicles of life of these people.”

-- Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria opens in New York and Los Angeles today (read my review right here) so what better time to talk to Luca about the proposed Call Me By Your Name sequel? The Playlist has a lot more from him on it, specifics and such (although he admits he's been awfully busy to get down to the nitty-gritty just yet), click on over for the rest. I like his defense of continuing the story on for a second film, as stated above, the best. I maintain a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to a second film - with a filmmaker as talented as him writing the whole idea off seems hella foolish. Also the man knows that Batman Returns is a masterpiece! Give the man a hand! Or a flipper, even!

From Armie Hammer to Superman

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Last week we found out that Armie Hammer got himself a new acting gig - he's joining the sure-to-be-stacked cast of Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh's follow-up to his (not good but financially successful) Murder on the Orient Express - I've seen the original Death on the Nile movie but I'll be damned if I remember much about it; any guesses who Armie would play? The only other actors attached so far are Branagh reprising his grotesquely mustachioed Inspector Poirot, and then Wonder Woman herself Gal Gadot. Armie & Gal will look real good opposite each other, I wager!

In other CMBYN Alum news there is a great big profile on director Luca Guadagnino in this month's New Yorker - you can read the whole thing right here. That's where I've been for the last half an hour. It is long! But it's full of stuff I didn't know yet so I recommend it, up to and including this confirmation of rumors about the Call Me By Your Name sequel:

"He wanted Johnson to play the wife of Hammer’s character. “She has to be a New England kind of hoochie woman,” he said, riffing merrily. “You have, maybe, five children.” “Oh, great,” Hammer said. “The only problem is the title,” Guadagnino reflected. “It cannot be ‘Call Me by Your Name Two.’ ”

I can't remember where that idea originated - if it's something Luca said in interviews before or if it's something everybody just sort of assumed would happen given his clear affection for Dakota and this perfect role for her sitting right there... but that's probably going to happen, if (no when) the sequel happens.

Other choice tidbits from the New Yorker piece - we hear what happened with Rio, Luca's movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal that he's no longer attached to direct, and then there's my favorite little passage, where he talks about his first sexual stirrings coming from a photo of "the actor Michele Placido costumed as Superman on the cover of the magazine TV Sorrisi e Canzoni" -- Luca says "I couldn’t take my eyes from the crotch," hilariously. Stars, they're just like us! And yes of course I managed to find the picture online...

Quote of the Day

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Okay I tried just updating the previous post (see below) with a different quote from Luca Guadagnino, where he talked about the Call Me By Your Name sequel a little bit, but now he's gone on the record with even more! And rather than keep updating that post let's just give this it's own post. So Luca has told us Elio's story will be continuing next at the end of the 1980s - naturally that means AIDS can't be avoided at that point. So The Hollywood Reporter asked him about that and he shared this brand new information (thanks Mac):

"I think it's going to be a very relevant part of the story,.... I think Elio [Timothee Chalamet] will be a cinephile, and I'd like him to be in a movie theater watching Paul Vecchiali's Once More," a 1988 film about a man who falls in love with a man after he leaves his wife, which was the first French movie to deal with AIDS. That could be the first scene [in the sequel].
The novel has 40 pages at the end that goes through the next 20 years of the lives of Elio and Oliver, so there is some sort of indication through the intention of author Andre Aciman that the story can continue. In my opinion, Call Me can be the first chapter of the chronicles of the life of these people that we met in this movie, and if the first one is a story of coming of age and becoming a young man, maybe the next chapter will be, what is the position of the young man in the world, what does he want — and what is left a few years later of such an emotional punch that made him who he is?"

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My Name, It's Being Called

I didn't really expect to burst into tears at some movie news this morning, but so it goes with anything Call Me By Your Name related yes even here four years on -- and if you missed MNPP's thorough CMBYN coverage well here's a good place to get started. Anyway no it's not news about the film's once-rumored sequel, which, well, I can't imagine that happening any time soon. It's something much simpler and much much more selfish, with regards to me in particular -- the movie is going to be screening here in New York again next month. And not just any ol' place -- it's going to be screening at The Paris Theater, where I saw it definitely more than half the 20 times I saw the film in the theater during its run.

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Yes one of those times Timmy was there in person, totally swamped by groupies (which I suppose I was one of) -- you can read my account of that night along with video from the Q&A, right here. Aaaaanyway back to my point The Paris was screening the film right in the thick of Moviepass being a thing so it cost me nothing to go see the film there a dozen times, and a dozen times give or take I went, straight to my prime seat in the front row center. The Paris closed up last year when its lease expired, which was very sad, but then Netflix bought it, which was the opposite. The first movie I saw in the theater once things started re-opening this year was I got to see my number one movie of 2020, Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, thanks to the Paris. (I posted about that here.) 

Anyway Netflix bought the theater but they're turning it into a real repertory theater now -- it won't just be Netflix movies, and today they announced their official plans for the next month or so, which marks their official official reopening. The first week is programmed by The Forty-Year-Old Version creator Radha Blank and is absolutely stellar, including The Apartment, Dog Day Afternoon, Fish Tank, Waiting For Guffman -- just a stunning and killer line-up. And then after that they have a month-long series called "Paris is For Lovers" which will showcase films that had their premiere at the Paris Theater and also were love stories...

... which is where Call Me By Your Name rears its luscious head. But it's not just that fave of mine -- oh no. Other titles include Maurice, Carol, Metropolitan, Amelie, Belle du Jour, Howard's End, The House of Mirth... I could keep listing and listing, but how about I just put the theater's press release here on the site and let them do their own talking. Hit the jump for it...

I Am Link

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--- X Junior - Noah Hawley, who has delivered unto the world two phenomenal seasons of television with Fargo, is setting his sights on super-men next - he's executive producing Legion, an X-Men spin-off series that will star Dan Stevens as Professor Charles Xavier's previously unmentioned son. (thanks Mac) I've come to like Stevens very much thanks to The Guest, but the real casting coup here if you ask me is Jean Smart, who's co-starring. Designing Woman in the house! Seriously though she deserves awards for what she did on Fargo last year.
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--- Never Let Her Go - If one were to scour back through our archives one would 1) be nuts and 2) discover that for a very long time I did not like Keira Knightley. I found her jaw-centric acting style irritating. That changed with Never Let Me Go in 2010, which I think she's really very lovely in, and ever since I usually like her; indeed it made me go back and revisit stuff like Pride & Prejudice and see her work with new eyes. Anyway it makes sense to me then that it would be Never Let Me Go director Mark Romanek who'd come to her defense first in the wake of Begin Again director John Carney's nasty comments (he said she's no actress, just a model) and make me agree with the nicer side. Keira's good people - you leave her be, ya big meanie; I don't want to sour towards Once.

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--- The Darko Boy - I'm not sure why they're chatting with Jake Gyllenhaal about Donnie Darko - its fifteenth anniversary isn't until October - but here's a clip of EW chatting with him as he reminisces on the film. I haven't watched it yet so somebody tell me if he has anything to say on the great big black hole that Richard Kelly's fallen into.

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--- F Is For Fake - I knew I had posted about this project previously but it took me forever to find the previous post -- once upon a time Nicole Holocener was making a movie starring Julianne Moore as the real-world literary forger Lee Israel, based on her autobiographical book Can You Ever Forgive Me. Neither of those ladies are attached any more, but two other terrific ladies now are -- Melissa McCarthy is going to star and Diary of a Teenage Girl director Marielle Heller is going to direct! This could end up being a very different film? But probs still great.
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--- Dying For Debicki - I don't recall having heard that Elizabeth Debicki had been cast in a role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel but apparently she had been, quite awhile back, which is terrific news - I like Debicki very much. (PS I always call her "Debicki" in my head so I think that might become our short-hand from now on.) Anyway The Playlist has some info on who the Big Bad is going to be in the sequel (spoilery, obviously) and they think that this is the role that Debicki's playing, which makes sense, given the character's description. Debicki & Blanchett playing Big Bads in Marvel movies - well now I am impatiently awaiting Isabelle Huppert showing up in Black Panther to complete the Maids triumvirate.
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--- Luck Be A Laddie - Showing a strange hardly-ever-adhered-to dedication to The Stage, the Tony-winning dude who directed a recent stage version of Guys & Dolls has been hired to direct the film version of Guys & Dolls. I know this isn't usually my wheelhouse (honestly I have never even see any version of G&D) but once upon a time Jake Gyllenhaal was rumored to want to make this movie so I still pay attention for some bizarre lingering reason. Last thing we'd heard casting-wise it was supposed to be Channing Tatum & Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the leading man roles but I'd be surprised if that's still the case.
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--- Forever Glow - Slip into your brightest pink leotard and tumble into my heart - the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling are coming back, kind of! The woman behind Orange is the New Black is staging a fictionalized comedy series based on my beloved childhood fave GLOW for Netflix. It will be ten episodes, and it will tell the story of an out-of-work actress in Los Angeles finding "one last attempt to live her dreams." And those dreams apparently include sweaty lycra. As most dreams do.

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---  Slaughter High - I've been saying for years now that the team producing the new Friday the 13th movies have got their collective heads crammed up their collective arses - making a Friday the 13th movie is not rocket science and nobody coming to see the movie is asking for rocket science. Put Jason Voorhees in a camp and commence slaughter of sexy teenagers, the end. Why they can't figure that out I have no idea. Anyway now they're saying it will be an origin film, but like a whole new origin, having nothing to do with the old origin. Because we care about Baby Jason or something? Ugh, fire all of these people.
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--- And Finally there are far, far worse ways to spend a few minutes... which will inevitably turn into a few more minutes because you want it to... staring at pictures of Marlene Dietrich in the dastardly-delicious double-feature of Morocco and Blonde Venus, so head on over to The Film Experience for this week's episode of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," which does just that. She has a face meant to be studied. Of course if I'd chosen I might not have been able to help myself, what with prime Gary Cooper slinking around in that uniform the whole time...
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