Call Me By Your Name director has no imminent plans to make sequel

Words: Alastair James; pictures: Wiki

Hopes for a sequel to the beloved gay romance film Call Me By Your Name (CMBYN) appear to have been dashed after comments from the movie’s Italian director, Luca Guadagnino, that he’s little busy right now.

Speaking to Deadline, the 49-year-old director said his heart is “still there” when it comes to following up the 2017 romantic drama, but that he has other projects on the go which he has to focus on. Guadagnino had previously indicated that the film was a-go with the main cast reuniting to continue Elio and Oliver’s love story.

Call Me By Your Name, starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer as Elio and Oliver respectively, tells the story of the two who fall in love against the backdrop of a hot Italian summer. It received acclaim for its adaptation of André Aciman’s novel of the same name, and its portrayal of a gay romance. 

“My heart is still there”

Guadagnino told Deadline: “The truth of the matter is, my heart is still there, but I’m working on this movie now, and I’m hopefully going to do Scarface soon, and I have many projects and so will focus on this side of the Atlantic and the movies I want to make.”

He spoke to the publication while on the set of his new film Bones and All, starring CMBYN’s Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg who also starred as Elio’s sympathetic father.

Luca Guadagnino (Photo: Wiki)

Fans of Oscar-nominated film will be disappointed after Guadagnino said in 2020 that was planning to meet a writer until that had to be canceled by the COVID pandemic. In an interview at the time with the Italian paper LaRepubblica, he said: “It is a pleasure to work again with Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer, Michael Stuhlbarg, Esther Garrel, and the other actors.

“They will all be in the new movie.”

“1000 percent in”

Aciman released a sequel to CMBYN, Find Me, in 2019, which centered mainly on Elio’s father, Sami, 10 years after the original novel was set. Guadagnino had also previously suggested the new film might take place just a few years after the first, exploring the AIDS crisis in Berlin in 1989 – a clear diversion from Aciman’s story.

In 2018, Chalamet said he and Hammer were “1000 percent in” for reprising their roles as Elio and Oliver, but last year Hammer seemed to be having second thoughts.

Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet (Photo: Wiki)

But Guadagnino’s schedule is not the only thing that could be putting a spanner in the works for a potential sequel. Timothée Chalamet, who also won much acclaim for his role as Elio, is very much a man in demand, as he films Bones And All, as well as a new version of the story of Willy Wonka.

And earlier this year it was revealed that Armie Hammer was under investigation for a rape allegation, which he denies. In January 2021, several women came forward alleging physical and emotional abuse by Hammer. Screenshots of alleged messages sent via Hammer’s Instagram account to a woman, which included violent fantasies of rape and cannibalism, were also shared online around the same time. 

These allegations have seen Hammer dropped by his talent agency, as well as from multiple projects he was due to appear in.