Armie Hammer Confirms He’s Been Pitched the ‘Call Me By Your Name’ Sequel: ‘We’re All Gung-Ho About It’
Not long after the success of “Call Me By Your Name,” the world clamored for more adventures with Elio and Oliver. Director Luca Guadagnino is ready to give the people what they want, saying last fall that he would like to follow the characters later in life by adapting and updating an epilogue from André Aciman’s novel. James Ivory, who became the oldest competitive Oscar winner in history last Sunday by winning Best Adapted Screenplay, has said that he knows nothing about the sequel plans.
However, Guadagnino was actively talking up the project over the past week, sharing details about a 1990-set plot against the backdrop of the AIDS crisis and following the former lovers around the world. He added that he planned to have Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer return to play their characters, allowing them to age in real time, similar to Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy.
As it turns out, the actors got the pitch, too. “Dude, he broke down the whole script for us,” Hammer told IndieWire during a brief conversation in Austin, where he was in town to be honored by the Texas Film Awards at the Austin Film Society’s annual fundraiser. “I mean, it’s not a finished script, but he’s got all the ideas for it. Luca’s all gung-ho about it, and by the way, if Luca’s doing it, I think we’re all gung-ho about it.”
Hammer said that while he expected to remain a major figure in the story, he would be willing to return for a supporting part, too. “You know, the experience of making the first one was so pure and beautiful that it wouldn’t matter how big my role was,” he said. “If the same people are involved, I’d do it all over again.”
Hammer was still reeling from the success of the movie, which grossed only $16.9 million at the domestic box office but became a treasured modern classic for multiple generations of moviegoers, as evinced by the enthusiasm around reports of a sequel. “It wasn’t something anyone expected,” he said. “We made this movie and didn’t know how it was going to be received. We poured our hearts and souls into it.”
Still, while Chalamet has been catapulted into global stardom as a result of his Oscar-nominated turn, Hammer’s last few months have been marked by bumpier circumstances, including a series of Twitter feuds that led him to quit the platform on multiple occasions. His views about the platform have evolved.
“You can be on Twitter without letting it be a huge part of your life,” he said. “I It doesn’t have to directly affect you. I’m still fighting with people, but mostly from a place of fun. Someone will say something and I’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah? Boo to that.’ I’m not sitting there thinking, ‘But what are they going to say now?’ It’s a learning process. It gets to the point where you don’t have to do that.”
He looked relieved to have the Oscar season behind him, and passed on a request to promote the movie in Japan this week. Instead, he called in a favor to have Chalamet present him with the Texas award (“I’ve given you like 20 of these,” he said in his speech later that night). “Everyone’s just happy to have it done,” Hammer said. “We all supported each other. This would’ve been a much different process if we didn’t actually love each other.”
