Anyone looking forward to that proposed ‘Call Me By Your Name’ sequel should probably dial their excitement down a little, after screenwriter James Ivory cast doubt on the project.
Following the critical acclaim the film has received since its release last year, director Luca Guadagnino recently spoke about his idea to make a sequel, based on the parts of the original novel his film didn’t tackle.
However, screenwriter James has said he doesn’t think a follow-up film is the most realistic idea.
Speaking backstage at the Baftas, where his screenplay won an award, James told reporters (via Radio Times): “I heard about [the idea of the sequel]. I don’t know how you could make such sequels if they’re far in the future.
“It’s not possible to make Timothée [Chalamet, who plays Elio] 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.”
Revealing that he was yet to be contacted over the project, James added: “You have to think, ’What does [‘Call Me By Your Name’ author] André Aciman think about that?’
“It’s his creation. No one seems to know how he feels about it.”
Luca Guadagnino previously said he hoped to make a sequel to ‘Call Me By Your Name’, picking up a few years after the original story and focussing on the HIV/AIDS crisis of the late 1980s.
He said: “In my opinion, Call Me can be the first chapter of the chronicles of the life of these people that we met in this movie, and 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?”