Is Luca Guadagnino following too many projects?

A few days ago, Deadline, one of the most important film magazines in the United States, revealed that Luca Guadagnino will direct the new adaptation of American Psycho, a novel by Bret Easton Ellis that inspired the famous film starring Christian Bale in 2000. The project joins a long list of projects – some of them very ambitious – that the Sicilian director has stated he is already working on. Currently, he is promoting Queer, his latest film, which will be released in Italy on February 13. Then there are the final stages of a thriller with Julia Roberts, titled After the Hunt. Recently, he also wrapped up a Venice exhibition on craftsmanship, Homo Faber, which he curated, and last week he released his ad for the Chanel N° 5 campaign, featuring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. And there’s more: Guadagnino recently announced he’s working on his second documentary on Bernardo Bertolucci, one of his favorite directors, and mentioned he’s overseeing the adaptation of Thomas Mann's novel Buddenbrooks. According to Variety, the director has also begun casting Separate Rooms, based on the most famous work by author Pier Vittorio Tondelli, with Josh O’Connor reportedly in talks to play the film’s lead.

If that weren’t enough, Guadagnino’s interior design studio recently redesigned the interiors of Palazzo Talìa, a luxury hotel in Rome. It’s worth noting that from 2020 to 2023, he was also working on a remake of the gangster movie Scarface, although he left the project mid-filming for reasons that remain unclear. Guadagnino’s habit of juggling numerous projects is well-known among industry professionals and film fans. “I’ve never used any drugs in my life […]. But it’s as if, at birth, I’d fallen into a mountain of Scarface cocaine, because I work nonstop, 13 hours a day,” he told Rolling Stone Italia in 2020, describing himself as an “unstoppable workaholic” – that is, a person obsessed with work. More recently, when the New York Times asked him, “How do you manage it all?” he simply replied, “I’m multitasking.” “While we’re having this interview, my mind is already working on something I need or want to do.”

How to Become Luca Guadagnino

Guadagnino, now 53, has been directing films since 1999, when he debuted with the thriller The Protagonists, presented at the Venice Film Festival. In Italy, he found some success in 2005 with Melissa P., a film that had a very troubled production – “a source of deep bitterness despite its popular success,” Guadagnino said. Four years later, I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton, launched what is now known as the “desire trilogy.” This was followed by the critically acclaimed A Bigger Splash in 2015 and Call Me by Your Name in 2017 – which won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and catapulted Timothée Chalamet to fame. The following year, he directed Suspiria, a remake of Dario Argento's film that was well-received by critics. We Are Who We Are (2020), however, was his first and only miniseries so far, in which he revisits topics dear to him, such as sexuality and gender issues. The theme of identity, in a broader sense, also appears in Bones and All, a 2022 film that brought Taylor Russell to wider public attention.

With Challengers in 2024, Guadagnino showcased the status he has achieved as a director, especially in Hollywood – the film also contributed to the rise of tenniscore. Thanks to these films, nearly all successful, Guadagnino has become increasingly influential and is now one of Italy’s most renowned and respected directors internationally – as well as one of the most active. But Guadagnino is also a great lover of cooking (as well as interior design and fashion): in one interview, when asked, “Why do you do this work?” – as chef Niko Romito reported in Rivista Studio – he responded, perhaps a bit sarcastically, that he does it mainly to make good money and be able to surround himself with kitchen equipment. Another lesser-known fact about Guadagnino is that, alongside journalist and film producer Carlo Antonelli, he has been writing some highly regarded obituaries for Corriere della Sera, some of which are quite poetic – such as those following the deaths of Silvio Berlusconi, Raffaella Carrà, director Jean-Luc Godard, and Queen Elizabeth.