Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Lesley Manville star in Luca Guadagnino’s screen adaptation of the William Burroughs novel Queer.
The film has been getting rave reviews since it made its debut at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year.
Guadagnino has added another impressive work to his filmography following his success with A Bigger Splash, Call Me by Your Name, Bones and All and Challengers.
The trailer for the film shows Bond star Daniel Craig playing American ex-pat William Lee wandering the streets of Mexico City where he comes across the attractive Eugene Allerton, played by Starkey.
The trailer is set to Sinead O’Connor’s haunting rendition of the Nirvana song All Apologies.
Guadagnino’s first cut of the film was apparently between 185 to 200 minutes long, but the final version has been cut down to a more digestible 135 minutes.
William Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas during his lifetime, as well as many short stories. His most famous work, 1959’s Naked Lunch, was often described as unfilmable. Director David Cronenberg brought it to the screen in 1991.
In 1985 Australian director Russell Mulcahy tried to get an adaptation of another Burroughs novel The Wild Boys into production but the project never came to fruition. Pop band Duran Duran had started work on a soundtrack for the film, hence their 1984 single The Wild Boys.
Hard working director Guadagnino looks like he could be taking on adapting the work of another famous author. He’s been linked to a new film version of American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. It was previously made into a feature film in 2000 with Christian Bale playing serial killer Patrick Bateman.
