‘Call Me By Your Name’ Sequel May Be Set In 1989 Berlin

Call Me By Your Name director, Luca Guadagnino, wants sequels. Call Me By Your Name, a gay coming-of-age story set in 1982 and starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2017. Adapted from the popular novel by André Aciman, it’s been nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Chalamet and Best Adapted Screenplay for writer James Ivory.

The film has been praised for its beautiful look, superb performances and for being the rare prominent gay-themed film that doesn’t focus on death or tragedy. Like Guadagnino’s previous film, A Bigger Splash, it’s a very sexy film set in a lush European setting.

But does that mean we need to see the further adventures of Elio and Oliver?

Guadagnino raised the possibility of making a sequel, or possibly multiple sequels, to Call Me By Your Name, in an interview with Collider. The book carries the characters further into the future than the movie does, and Guadagnino says he would love to tell their further stories on screen as well.

“I believe that I will end up making a cycle of films about these characters because I love them so much,” he says. “And I think their experience of life is ripe for many, many adventures… I think the next chapter, it will be happening right after the fall of the Berlin Wall and that great shift that was the end of Russia, of the USSR, sorry. And we’ll see people leaving home and going in the world. That’s what I can say for now.”

There’s been no news about a deal being put together for a sequel, or about the time frame for any such movie happening. Guadagnino’s next film is Burial Rites, a period true crime drama starring Jennifer Lawrence.

Is this a good idea – Oliver and Elio in a sort of same-sex version of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight series? Possibly. Those movies didn’t sound like the most intuitive candidate for sequels either, but each has been better than the previous one. Oliver and Elio are wonderful characters and it would probably gladden many fans of the film to see more of them.

On the other hand, Call Me By Your Name has been criticized by some for being disengaged from the politics of its time, something that will be harder to avoid for a sequel set in 1989, both for reasons related to the fall of the Berlin Wall or the AIDS crisis. Would a film set in that time feel enough like the original to satisfy its fans? That’s the problem the filmmakers will have to solve.