Daniel Craig is attached to star in Luca Guadagnino‘s next movie, which will be an adaptation of William S. Burroughs‘ early novel Queer, Above the Line has exclusively learned.
Queer is considered a quasi-sequel to Burroughs’ earlier novel Junkie, which was published in 1953. The short novel was reportedly written between 1951 and 1953, though it wasn’t published until 1985. Burroughs has said that it represents him off heroin.
The novel is centered around a man named Lee, who recounts his life in Mexico City among American ex-pat college students and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits. Self-conscious and insecure, Lee is driven to pursue a young man named Allerton, who was based on a recently discharged American Navy serviceman from Jacksonville, Florida who befriended Burroughs in Mexico City.
In 2011, Steve Buscemi was set to direct a feature adaptation of Queer that was written by Oren Moverman, and he even led a reading of the script at the Sarasota Film Festival with Stanley Tucci and Ben Foster, but the film ultimately never came to fruition. It’s unclear who is producing the latest iteration of Queer at this time, or whether Guadagnino has distribution lined up, but expect to hear more about this project soon.
Craig will soon be seen reprising his role as master detective Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson‘s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, which will debut on Netflix on Dec. 23. The actor seems eager to distance himself from his signature role as James Bond, and he was recently seen dancing in a commercial for Belvedere vodka that was directed by Taika Waititi. Both Craig and Guadagnino are represented by CAA.
Guadagnino currently has the cannibal romance Bones and All in theaters, and he has already wrapped his next film, Challengers, which stars Zendaya. We’re hearing that Queer will be his next project, and that the director has his eye on one of the young stars of Outer Banks to play Allerton. Stay tuned…
