Timothée Chalamet ‘Savoring’ Acting Break After Denis Villeneuve, Wes Anderson Films
Zack Sharf
Timothée Chalamet became the youngest Best Actor Oscar nominee in nearly 80 years when he landed Academy recognition for “Call Me By Your Name” in 2018, and since then he’s worked non-stop on films with Greta Gerwig, David Michôd, Denis Villeneuve, and Wes Anderson. If anyone is deserving of a small acting break right now, it’s Chalamet. The actor tells Entertainment Weekly he’s “savoring” a break now that he doesn’t have any gig lined up at the moment. “It’s the first time in almost two years I’ve gotten a breath,” Chalamet said.
Chalamet just completed production on Villeneuve’s Warner Bros. tentpole “Dune,” which is opening in theaters December 18, 2020. Chalamet stars in the film in the lead role of Paul Atreides, previously played by Kyle MacLachlan in David Lynch’s 1984 “Dune” adaptation. Villeneuve’s epic will be the first time Chalamet leads a studio tentpole, no doubt a critical moment for his career.
“Dune” is one of two highly anticipated 2020 films Chalamet has on the film calendar, the other being Anderson’s 10th feature film “The French Dispatch.” Not much about the film’s plot has been revealed other than it’s “a love letter to journalists set in an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th Century French city.” Chalamet is playing one of the movie’s lead characters. Fox Searchlight is opening “The French Dispatch” in theaters sometime in 2020.
Chalamet is currently in select theaters as the star of Netflix’s “The King,” directed by Michôd. The movie, which hits Netflix’s streaming platform in November, was filmed directly before Chalamet started work on Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.” Chalamet stars as Theodore “Laurie” Laurence in the film, which reunites him with his “Lady Bird” director and leading actress Saoirse Ronan. Sony is opening “Little Women” in theaters December 25. The projects shot back to back before Chalamet headed off on the months-long “Dune” film shoot, which shot in international locations such as the Jordan desert.
Even with Chalamet comfortably taking a small acting break, he’ll still be hitting the red carpet circuit hard in 2020 with “The French Dispatch” and “Dune.” New offerings from Villeneuve and Anderson come with big expectations and potential festival debuts. Many expect Anderson’s “French Dispatch” to world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, just as the director’s “Isle of Dogs” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” did in the past.
