Luca Guadagnino Planning ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Sequel For 2020
Zack Sharf
Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy is famous for checking in on the relationship between Jesse and Celine (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) every 9 years, and Elio and Oliver form “Call Me By Your Name” will operate similarly on the big screen if Luca Guadagnino has his way. ScreenDaily reports that the Italian filmmaker is planning a sequel to his Sundance darling in which the movie will pick up with the characters three years later. Similar to the “Before” trilogy, actors Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer will match the ages of their characters.
“I want to do a sequel because Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar, Esther Garrel – they are all gems,” Guadagnino said during the BFI London Film Festival. “The texture we built together is very consistent. We created a place in which you believe in the world before them. They are young but they are growing up. If I paired the age of Elio in the film with the age of Timothée, in three years’ time Timothée will be 25 as would Elio by the time the second story was set.”
“Call Me By Your Name” is based on the novel by André Aciman and follows the 17-year-old Elio has he experiences first love with twenty-something Oliver during a summer in Italy. The film does not include the original epilogue Aciman wrote for the novel, which picks up with the characters 15 years in the future, where Oliver is married to a woman and has children, but the jury is still out on whether or not Guadagnino intends to use the epilogue for the sequel. He could very well expand on it and change the timeline to three years in the future.
The director teased what’s in store for the sequel, noting the biggest difference will be the time change to 1990. “It is the time of the fall of communism and the start of the new world order and the so-called ’The End of History’ that Francis Fukuyama established then,” he said. “It would be the beginning of the Berlusconi era in Italy and it would mean dealing with the war of Iraq.”
As for Elio, Guadagnino isn’t so sure we’ll be seeing him more comfortable as a gay man in three years time. “I don’t think Elio is necessarily going to become a gay man. He hasn’t found his place yet,” he said. “I can tell you that I believe that he would start an intense relationship with Marzia [Esther Garrel’s character] again.”
“Call Me By Your Name” as earned universal acclaim ever since premiering at Sundance at the beginning of the year. The drama most recently earned standing ovations at the New York Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics will release the film in theaters November 24.
