“It’s not possible to make Timothée Chalet look like he’s 40.”
The screenwriter for Call Me By Your Name has dashed hopes of a sequel to the critically acclaimed romantic drama.
Call Me By Your Name follows the love story between Elio (Timothée Chalet) and Oliver (Armie Hammer), an American academic who comes to stay at his family’s home in Italy during the summer of 1983.
Upon release, the movie received universal acclaim from fans and critics, receiving four Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor.
Backstage at the BAFTAS, screenwriter James Ivory – fresh off his win for Best Adapted Screenplay – said: “I heard about it. I don’t know how you could make such sequels if they’re far in the future.”
He added: “It’s not possible to make Timothée [Chalamet] look likes he’s 40. All the make-up in the world and the rest of it and changing voice is not going to do it. I don’t know how.
“No one has contacted me. You have to think, ‘What does André Aciman think about that?’ It’s his creation. No one seems to know how he feels about it.”
However, director Luca Guadagnino has revealed plans for a sequel in several interviews. He even suggested ideas for more than one sequel, with hopes to set up a shared cinematic universe to follow the lives of Elio and Oliver.
In an interview with The Guardian, the director said: “These characters are so fantastic, and I want to know what happens to them. The last 40 pages of the book tell you about 20 years in the life of Oliver and Elio.”
Guadagnino also told The Hollywood Reporter that part of the story will involve the AIDS epidemic which tore through the gay community during the 1980s – something that was absent from the Call Me By Your Name novel and film.
“I think it’s going to be a very relevant part of the story,” he said.
“I think Elio will be a cinephile, and I’d like him to be in a movie theatre watching Paul Vecchiali’s Once More. That could be the first scene [in the sequel].”
Once More was the first French film to address the AIDS crisis when it was released in 1988.
As for plans for more than one sequel, Guadagnino touched upon Andre Aciman’s final part of the book which travels through time meeting up with the two characters during different stages of their lives.
“Call Me can be the first chapter,” he explained.
“If the first one is a story of coming of age and becoming a young man, maybe the next chapter will be, what is the position of the young man in the world, what does he want – and what is left a few years later of such an emotional punch that made him who he is?”
Guadagnino initially teased us with a sequel last year when he told Gay Times: “Maybe in time we’ll be able to tell more stories about these people.”
Ivory will be happy to know that Guadagnino has spoken to the author about a follow-up: “I’ve spoken to André about that and, yeah, André is up for it.”
Sorry James Ivory, but we’re going with the director on this one. Bring on the sequel!
Related: Here’s why all your criticisms of Call Me By Your Name are wrong
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