Filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is re-affirming his plans for Call Me By Your Name to become to him what the Before Sunrise films are to Richard Linklater.
The director, who had the divisive Suspiria remake in cinemas last year, spoke with Italian outlet Bad Taste and discussed his idea for how the story of Timothee Chalamet’s Elio and Armie Hammer’s Oliver should continue in a follow-up which will be set years later and far away from the sunny Italian shores:
“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.”
Both Chalamet and Hammer are reportedly game to star in the film, and Guadagnino has indicated he wants his frequent muse Dakota Johnson to play the woman Oliver is married to in the sequel. Author Andre Aciman and screenwriter James Ivory also have to approve but have apparently indicated a desire for more to this story so it’s now more a question of when.
