booked & busy

Josh O’Connor & a major A-lister are lining up queer new roles with director Luca Guadagnino

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Image Credit: ‘Challengers,’ Amazon MGM Studios

In the time it took you to click on the link, open this article in your browser, and finish reading this sentence, queer filmmaker Luca Guadagnino probably announced another project.

Ever since his buzzy, breakthrough adaptation of Call Me By Your Name earned four Oscar nominations (and one win for legendary screenwriter James Ivory), the Italian director has been one of the most booked and busy in the game.

We’re still a month out from the debut of his next feature, Challengers—a tennis world love triangle drama starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist—but it would appear his follow-up (the Daniel Craig-led William S. Burroughs adaptation Queer) is already in the can, potentially hitting theaters before the year is up.

This week alone, Guadagnino has announced two more upcoming films. And, on top of that, he’s also supposed to be adapting Brett Easton Ellis’ acclaimed coming-of-age thriller The Shards as a series for HBO.

Related:

This queer author’s coming-of-age thriller is coming to HBO with an assist from Luca Guadagnino

Author Bret Easton Ellis’ latest book, ‘The Shards,’ is being adapted for HBO—and he says Luca Guadagnino will direct.

Seriously, does this guy take a break? We’re starting to get worried.

But we can’t complain too much because the filmmaker continues to deliver fascinating (and sometimes horrifying) films with major queer appeal. Take, for example, the aforementioned Challengers, which continues to hint that—in addition to featuring hot actors that girls, gays, and theys love—it might actually go full MFM three-way. (And *spoiler* if this early Letterboxd review is to be believed, it does!)

Even if Challengers doesn’t deliver what we hope, it shouldn’t be too long ’til we get to see star Josh O’Connor go “gay-for-pay” for Guadagnino…

In the first of the directors two projects announced this week (thus far), Variety reports that O’Connor is in talks to star in his upcoming gay drama, Separate Rooms, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by late Italian writer Pier Vittorio Tondelli. 

The actor would play the story’s protagonist, Leo, a man whose passionate romance with a hy German musician named Thomas is said to be “marked by different forms of separation.” Though light on plot, the book is said to grapple with themes of intimacy, isolation, death, and our lifelong search for belonging. Sounds pretty gay to us.

Notably, Separate Rooms would be far from O’Connor’s first queer role. He first popped on many filmgoers’ radar with the 2017 British farmhand romance God’s Own Country, and is currently shooting the gay WWI drama The History Of Sound opposite Irish “It Boy” Paul Mescal for Mary & George director Oliver Hermanus.

Related:

‘God’s Own Country’ star Josh O’Connor is going gay again

Fresh off his Emmy win, O’Connor will star in the gay romance ‘The History of Sound.’

O’Connor also co-wrote and plays a small role in the musical gay coming-of-age rom-com Bonus Track, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival last fall and awaits U.S. distribution.

While some have complained about Guadagnino’s tendency to cast straight actors for his queer-leaning projects, at least he’s found one who’s really put the work in in terms of bringing LGBTQ+ stories to the screen. And, besides, O’Connor never really has made any sort of public comment on his sexuality, so who are we to say!

But then there’s Guadagnino’s next-next project, which was just announced today and already has the internet in a tizzy.

According to Deadline, the director has tapped none other than Julia Roberts as the star of a thriller for Amazon MGM Studios currently titled After The Hunt, the feature debut from screenwriter Nora Garrett.

It’s said the original story is about a college professor (Roberts) who finds herself in a tight spot when one of her star students comes forward with sensitive allegations about a colleague, which in turn threatens to uncover some dark secrets from her own past.

Related:

5 times Julia Roberts gave the gays everything they wanted

The trailer for her new limited series “Gaslit” has hit the web.

Aside from the opportunity to watch an icon like Roberts slay on screen once again, there’s also the fact that (per reporter Justin Kroll) sources have likened After The Hunt‘s script to “Tár set in the world of academia.” Could that mean there’s a queer element to the story, too? Time will tell.

And, speaking of time: We don’t know where Guadagnino’s going to find the time to work on all these projects he’s lining up, but you better believe we’ll be there opening weekend whenever they finally hit theaters.

Scroll down below for a few of Gay Twitter™’s reactions to Guadagnino’s latest project announcements:

Related:

Meet the heartthrob set to play Daniel Craig’s lover in new film from ‘Call Me By Your Name’ director

‘Outer Banks’ star Drew Starkey is set to play Craig’s much younger obsession in ‘Queer.’

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