Luca Guadagnino already had two films that have premiered this year, “Challengers” and “Queer,” but he’s not stopping, and keeping himself busy for, at least, the next few years.
According to Guadagnino himself (via IndieWire), an adaptation of ‘Buddenbrooks’ by Thomas Mann” is in the works. He sees it as a companion piece to “Queer,” which is a William S. Burroughs adaptation.
I think they are kind of mirroring each other, or they are the flip coin of each other. One [‘Queer’] is about the longing of the past and the unavoidability when you meet someone that is really pulling you in, and you want to see yourself reflected in the gaze of the other. And the other one [‘Buddenbrooks’] is about the decadence of a Western society rooted in the most brutal form of repression, internal before being external. To understand the obscenity of repression being acted out upon people, I think you have to see and look into the repression that the people who are exerting repression over other people have within themselves, not to justify them, but to go to the root of this heart of darkness.
Guadagnino has mentioned the influence that Mann’s 1901 novel had on him, but the filmmaker is now telling IndieWire that he’s in the process of adapting it with “We Are Who We Are” creator/writer Francesca Manieri.
“Buddenbrooks” is one of Guadagnino’s four “dream projects,” along with his 2018 remake of “Suspiria,” “Queer,” and his upcoming adaptation of Pier Vittorio Tondelli’s “Separate Rooms,” which Manieri is also writing, and is set to star Léa Seydoux and Josh O’Connor.
“Separate Rooms” is supposed to be shot next year, but before then he’ll be premiering “After the Hunt,” starring Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield, sometime in 2025 — that one’s already deep in post-production.
Guadagnino is also putting the finishing touches on a documentary about his cinematic hero, Bernardo Bertolucci. He’s currently editing the film, which is titled “Joie de Vivre,” although he admits he won’t be able to “sidestep the controversy” surrounding Bertolucci — presumedly referring to a claim that Maria Schneider, the actress, who was 19 years old at the time, was “humiliated” and “a little raped” by an unscripted moment during the shoot of “Last Tango in Paris.”
“We tried to put at rest the silly idea of the controversy around Bernardo because it’s kind of misguided,” said Guadagnino.
Guadagnino is a workaholic. He’s never not busy and has had his stock considerably rise this year because of “Challengers” and “Queer.” Did I also mention he’s rumored to be directing a DCU movie for James Gunn? It just never ends with him.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.