But one project I know that Gunn was high on was The Authority, which features a gay romance between the superheroes Apollo and Midnighter. It certainly makes sense that Guadagnino would be high on DC’s list of potential directors for that movie, seeing as how Guadagnino has fearlessly depicted gay relationships in films such as Call Me By Your Name and Queer, which just premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Guadagnino is coming off the commercial success of Challengers, which grossed nearly $100 million worldwide. Not only was it a hit with young moviegoers, but it’s one of the year’s highest-grossing original movies that isn’t part of any franchise or based on any IP… or the life of Bob Marley.
Depending on how old the characters are supposed to be in Gunn’s version of The Authority, Guadagnino could even cast one of his Queer stars — Daniel Craig or Drew Starkey — as one of the leads, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s still early days on both The Authority and Gunn’s courtship of Guadagnino.
That said, the other DC project for which Guadagnino could be a good fit is the Teen Titans movie, given the performances he has elicited from young actors in movies like Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria, and the HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are. Of course, Guadagnino could have always approached Gunn with an original pitch based on another DC Comics character that interested him, as opposed to Gunn showing him the menu of future movies he plans to make during his time atop DC.
Indeed, Gunn needs to start stocking the pipeline, as I still believe it risky to introduce a new Batman in a feature adaptation of The Brave and the Bold from The Flash director Andy Muschietti while audiences are still digging Matt Reeves’ Batman movies, plus, James Mangold’s Swamp Thing movie is still years away, with Mangold expected to focus on his Star Wars movie once his upcoming Bob Dylan movie A Complete Unknown is released in theaters this December.
By the way, let’s hope that Gunn is looking at Brendan Fraser to star in Swamp Thing, as many successful monsters have truly soulful, expressive eyes — Fraser’s specialty — and Warners owes the actor one after scrapping Batgirl on the heels of his Oscar-winning turn in The Whale. Just some fish food for thought, while I have your attention.
As far as Guadagnino goes, he has already wrapped his follow-up to Queer, which will hit theaters this fall courtesy of A24. The director will return next year with the collegiate thriller After the Hunt starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri.
Guadagnino is also attached to an HBO adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel The Shards, though his schedule appears to be relatively clear as far as I can tell, and if the Italian director looking to make the leap to blockbusters, Gunn’s vision of the DC Universe could be very appealing. Stay tuned…
A representative for DC Studios could not be reached for comment.
