My Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer Google Alerts have been a little thin lately, but thanks to um... Reddit (yes, there is a Call Me By Your Name subreddit), I have a located a crucial update on the fabled sequel to the Most Beautiful Film Of 2018.
In a new interview with The New Indian Express, Call Me By Your Name author André Aciman gave a confusing update to the status of CMBYN sequel.
Quick refresher: Director Luca Guadagnino is "serious" about a sequel. Chalamet is "1000%" in. Hammer's down. Aciman promised that he is literally working on a second book about the two men as I write this. But, screenwriter James Ivory — the only one of the men involved to nab an Oscar for his contribution to the film — flat out said he would not be writing another script about Elio (Chalamet) and Oliver's (Hammer) love.
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Now, back to Aciman: The news outlet asked Aciman if his process for writing the sequel had changed after seeing the film; does he write with a "cinematic medium in mind?"
"No, no absolutely not," he responded. "I don’t even know how to write that way. I can never write with cinema in my mind, because it’s not how I vision the page and the rhythm of the sentences… What I do like is, it’s not a sequel, it’s more like a prequel..."
And yes that is where the quote ends. With a "..." which is also coincidentally what is currently in my brain. A prequel? This changes things. For one, Aciman's first novel ends differently than the film — in the book, there's a flash forward where Elio and Oliver interact for the first time in decades. This older storyline is the one that Guadagnino has expressed interest in exploring in his follow-up story with Chalamet and Hammer (and one of the reasons that the sequel was pushed — to let the cherub Chalamet age a bit on his own). But with news of the Aciman writing a prequel instead of the expected sequel, this changes things. We need to start filming, now!
Of course, there's always the chance that Guadagnino is doing his own thing, in which case we may have — dare I say it — double the CMBYN to look forward to: a new prequel on paper, and a proper sequel on the screen.
If this is true then I have one thing to say to Aciman: