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Luca Guadagnino Unpacks ‘Queer’: How Burroughs’ ‘Universal’ Love Story, Casting Daniel Craig and Lots of On-Screen Sex Resulted in a ‘Very Revolutionary’ Film


Ahead of its Venice premiere, Luca Guadagnino discusses adapting ‘Queer,’ on-screen sex and casting Daniel Craig, who said: 'Yeah, I’m up for it.'

The stars aligned when producer Lorenzo Mieli and Fremantle’s head of literary acquisitions Raffaella de Angelis were able to get the book rights and Guadagnino rapidly paired up again with “Challengers” writer Justin Kuritzkes. Then, CAA chief exec Bryan Lourd brought Daniel Craig on board to play the renowned counterculture author’s alter ego, Lee, an outcast American expat who lives in Mexico, and “Outer Banks” star Drew Starkey was cast as a younger man with whom he becomes madly infatuated. That’s why my beloved [Bernardo] Bertolucci, when he adapted “The Sheltering Sky” by Paul Bowles — who was peripheral to the Beats, but friends with them — he opted for the ultimate melodrama, another popular genre.

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