Luca Guadagnino's Queer Starring Daniel Craig And Drew Starkey To Be 3 Hours Long? Rumors Explored (2024)

Luca Guadagnino's Queer is based on a William S. Burroughs novel of the same name written in the 1950s but not published until 1985. The movie is rumored to be 3 hours long.

Daniel Craig (IMDb)

Queer, Luca Guadagnino's latest cinematic creation is reportedly slated for its world premiere at the upcoming Venice Film Festival on August 28. World of Reel recently reported that the film has a three-hour-long runtime.

Queer is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs's contentious novel bearing the same title and has been lauded as fantastic by a producer who reportedly previewed it at the Cannes Film Festival. The film is headlined by Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Jason Schwartzman, and Lesley Manville.

Queer will be 3 hours long

Luca Guadagnino’s Queer clocks in at 3 hours and Daniel Craig might have delivered the performance of his career. Queer will world premiere at the Venice Film Festival which is set to begin on August 28. The Italian filmmaker is a mainstay on the Lido, having premiered many of his films there. Queer's premiere follows the withdrawal of Guadagnino's previous film, Challengers, featuring Zendaya, from last year's Venice Film Festival.

The adaptation of Queer has had a lengthy journey to the screen. In 2011, Steve Buscemi intended to direct a version of the film with a script from Oren Moverman, but this project never materialized.

Kuritzkes acknowledged the novel's complexity, stating it was not written for the screen, but that all elements; characters, story, and point of view were present. Despite earlier speculation about a Cannes premiere, no official announcement was made. However, Queer is now set to awe audiences.

"It's not like one of those novels that's written for the screen or something," Kuritzkes told IndieWire. "It’s a pretty wild book, but the characters were there, and the story was there, and the point of view was there, the voice was there. And so it was a process of the meeting place between Burroughs’ voice and his point of view, and my voice and my point of view, and then Luca’s voice and his point of view, and trying to hold all that."

In December 2022, it was announced that Daniel Craig would be taking on the role of Lee in Guadagnino's adaptation. Several months later, Outer Banks star Drew Starkey was officially cast as Allerton, shortly before production was slated to begin.

Craig was reportedly consulted on the casting, and told Guadagnino "That's the guy" once he saw Starkey's audition tape. "I liked Drew from the moment I met him,” Craig told GQ. “He’s such a wonderful, kind human being, and that was very obvious to me from the very start.”

More about Queer

Queer is based on a William S. Burroughs novel of the same name written in the 1950s but not published until 1985. It follows an American expatriate named Lee who becomes obsessed with a younger Navy serviceman, Allerton, that he meets in Mexico City. The story is based on Burroughs' own experiences, and is considered somewhat of a sequel to his 1953 novel, Junkie.

Set in 1940s Mexico City, it follows Lee who has fled from a drug bust in New Orleans. In Mexico City, Lee wanders around the city's clubs and becomes infatuated with drug user Allerton, a discharged American Navy serviceman.

The principal photography of the film began in Rome, Italy on April 29, 2023. The project was filmed at Cinecittà Studios. Additional scenes were shot in Quito, Ecuador, standing for Mexico City. The production wrapped on June 29, 2023.

Queer is loosely based on the life of author Burroughs, focusing on his time in Mexico, living off US government subsidies post-World War II, and his battle with heroin addiction. The novel was penned as a quasi-sequel to Burroughs's semi-autobiographical 1953 work Junkie. Its hom*osexual themes were considered too controversial for its time, resulting in it remaining unpublished until 1985.

Craig portrays Lee, an American expatriate who becomes infatuated with a younger Navy serviceman named Allerton, played by Starkey.

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