Since director Luca Guadagnino introduced André Aciman’s queer coming-of-age novel Call Me By Your Name to the display screen in 2017 starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, it’s protected to say that it thrust Aciman’s literary expertise into the highlight. Eight years on, Netflix is now lined as much as produce a restricted collection based mostly on Aciman’s 2017 novel Enigma Variations with Jeremy Allen White of FX’s The Bear – probably the greatest Hulu reveals – because the lead function.
Being a lesser-known novel than Call Me By Your Name, Enigma Variations adopts related themes of queer romance focussing on the lifetime of Paul (White), a bisexual man who displays on his romantic encounters with each women and men over the course of some many years. Divided into transient accounts, Paul seems to be again on the numerous chapters in his romantic life beginning with the years of his adolescence, and items them collectively to create one shifting narrative of self-discovery.
As it stands, the restricted collection is at present in its early phases of growth and, due to this fact, has no official launch date. Nonetheless, it is going to mark the second book-to-screen adaptation of one in every of Aciman’s novels, and would be the first to be produced underneath the identify of probably the greatest streaming providers. With a reputation as huge as Netflix’s connected to the undertaking, it’s solely applicable that the streamer has enlisted the assistance of established writers and producers. This consists of Amanda Kate Shuman, author of probably the greatest Prime Video reveals The Wheel of Time and Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) who will government produce the collection with Aciman and Jeremy Allen White himself.
There’s little doubt that Jeremy Allen White is rising as one of many largest stars in leisure proper now following his Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning performances in The Bear, in addition to his early appearances in reveals equivalent to Shameless (2011-2021). But except for Netflix’s adaptation of Enigma Variations, White has different thrilling initiatives within the works from the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere and the Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is anticipated to reach in 2026. With a filmography as various as this, it’s planted a seed of intrigue inside me and I can’t wait to see how White will strategy taking part in a personality from an Andre Aciman novel – notably a queer one.
Can Jeremy Allen White rise to the problem?
There’s nothing I like to see greater than an actor taking up a task that sits on the other finish of the spectrum to those we closely affiliate with them taking part in. Take Daniel Craig, for instance. I had by no means actually paid a whole lot of consideration to the actor as a result of I had at all times related him with James Bond and the archetype of a ‘man’s man’. However, when he starred because the camp detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019), I noticed a softer and far looser aspect to Craig, which was a refreshing departure from his earlier roles as hyper-masculinised characters.
Weirdly, I really feel the identical with Jeremy Allen White. Because of his function as Carmy in The Bear, who’s virtually incapable of expressing any sort of emotional output in addition to his function as burly wrestler Kerry Von Erich in The Iron Claw (2023), I’ve solely seen White solely as an actor of most of these roles. Therefore it was shocking to listen to him tackle the function of a queer character from an Aciman novel.
But don’t confuse this with disappointment, as a result of it’s removed from that. Instead, Netflix’s alternative of casting has raised my expectations of White as an actor and I’m excited to see how he chooses to imagine the character of Paul, and which route he decides to take him over the course of the restricted collection.
