To say Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme” is one of our most anticipated films of the fall would be an understatement. Safdie hasn’t directed a film since 2019’s “Uncut Gems,” and this latest one sounds bonkers.
You couldn’t make this up if you tried: Kevin O’Leary — Mr. Wonderful himself — has a role in ”Marty Supreme,” opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Timothée Chalamet. He plays “the richest man in America in 1952.” Paltrow is his unfaithful wife. Chalamet may or may not be the other man.
A new interview with O’Leary, where he speaks about the film, is making the rounds online, and it makes his casting in the film even more absurd.
Interviewer: Do you always wear two watches?
O'Leary: These are the two watches that have become movie stars in the movie Marty Supreme that's coming out Christmas Day. I'm in the movie with Gwyneth Paltrow
Interviewer: Gwyneth Paltrow?! She plays your wife?
O'Leary: And she's unfaithful. It's over between us let me tell you. And Timothée Chalamet might have been involved in that unfaithfulness. Right in the middle of Central Park. So nasty. I can't believe it. But I play the richest guy in America in 1952, as it should be Liz. As it should be.
Interviewer: I couldn't agree more.
O'Leary: I'm not a nice guy. Oh my goodness. I think I was able to play that role quite well.
Now, on paper this sounds completely unhinged. And it is. But here’s the wildest part: it might actually work. Casting O’Leary as a smug capitalist villain? It’s so on-the-nose it circles back around to .. genius?
“Marty Supreme,” produced by A24, amdcset for release in December, has a wild cast, including O’Leary, Chalamet, Paltrow, Fran Drescher, Tyler The Creator, Abel Ferrara, Penn Jillette, and Sandra Bernhard.
Set in 1953, “Marty Supreme” will tell the wild story of a Ping Pong champion. It is said to be a “fictional work,” but Marty Reisman was used as a template. The screenplay was written by Safdie and Ronald Bronstein. Last year, it had been reported that Safdie’s film cost close to $90M to produce.
The film’s DP, Darius Khondji, recently claimed that there are over 140 different characters featured in “Marty Supreme,” and that the film is “unlike anything at the moment.”