I spoke to a producer here at Cannes who tells me he’s seen Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer” and that it’s “fantastic” and clocks in at 3 hours. Daniel Craig might have delivered the performance of his career.
Guadagnino’s “Queer” will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival which is set to begin on August 28. The Italian filmmaker is a mainstay on the Lido, having premiered many of his films there. Cannes did see “Queer”, but I’m told, after “Challengers” was pulled from Venice last year, Guadagnino promised Venice boss Alberto Barbera he’d be bringing “Queer” to this year’s edition of the fest.
Based on William S. Burroughs’ controversial novel, Guadagnino’s film wrapped production last July and recently wrapped post prod. The film stars Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman and Lesley Manville.
The source material is loosely inspired by Burroughs’ own life, and his time spent in Mexico, surviving on the subsidies handed out by the US government following World War II, not to mention his struggles and dependence on heroin.
Burroughs‘ work was written as a quasi-sequel to his semi-autobiographical 1953 novel “Junkie.” Its homosexual themes were deemed too controversial at the time for readers, and it went unpublished until 1985.
Guadagnino released his “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor, in April, to very positive reviews, he might have quite the year with these two films — both could be campaigned for awards.