Back in 2017, when Trump’s election and Brexit were still fresh wounds, we found solace in Call Me By Your Name. Promoting Timothée Chalamet to icon status, the sun-drenched drama about first love transported us to the idylls of intellectual, upper-class life in Northern Italy. Queer romance aside, the setup wasn’t exactly progressive…but this focus on the one per cent, who seem to do little but pine for one another and read Stendhal, was just the escapism we needed at the time.
Now, as we stand in the thrall of the COVID-19 epidemic and desperately need to hear some good news, director Luca Guadagnino has opted to lighten the mood once more. Speaking to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, he confirmed that members of the original cast including Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer would be coming on board for a sequel. “Of course, it is a great pleasure to work with Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Esther Garrel and the other actors,” Luca said. “Everyone will be in the new movie.”
Whilst this has not been confirmed, there is speculation that the sequel could be adapted from Find Me, the follow-up to the original Call By Your Name written by André Aciman. This second novel is set several years later and follows Elio (Timothée Chalamet) in his career as a classical pianist, Oliver (Armie Hamer) as he works as a professor in New England, and Elio’s father Samuel (Michael Stuhlbarg) in the aftermaths of divorce.
