Since director Luca Guadagnino introduced André Aciman’s queer coming-of-age novel Name Me By Your Identify to the display in 2017 starring Timothee Chalamet and Armie Hammer, it’s secure to say that it thrust Aciman’s literary expertise into the highlight. Eight years on, Netflix is now lined as much as produce a restricted sequence based mostly on Aciman’s 2017 novel Enigma Variations with Jeremy Allen White of FX’s The Bear – one of many greatest Hulu exhibits – because the lead position.
Being a lesser-known novel than Name Me By Your Identify, Enigma Variations adopts comparable themes of queer romance focussing on the lifetime of Paul (White), a bisexual man who displays on his romantic encounters with each women and men over the course of some a long time. Divided into temporary accounts, Paul appears to be like again on the numerous chapters in his romantic life beginning with the years of his adolescence, and items them collectively to create one transferring narrative of self-discovery.
Because it stands, the restricted sequence is at present in its early phases of growth and, due to this fact, has no official launch date. Nonetheless, it’ll mark the second book-to-screen adaptation of one in every of Aciman’s novels, and would be the first to be produced underneath the identify of one of many greatest streaming providers. With a reputation as massive as Netflix’s connected to the undertaking, it’s solely applicable that the streamer has enlisted the assistance of established writers and producers. This contains Amanda Kate Shuman, author of one of many greatest Prime Video exhibits The Wheel of Time and Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) who will government produce the sequence with Aciman and Jeremy Allen White himself.
There’s little doubt that Jeremy Allen White is rising as one of many largest stars in leisure proper now following his Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning performances in The Bear, in addition to his early appearances in exhibits equivalent to Shameless (2011-2021). However apart from Netflix’s adaptation of Enigma Variations, White has different thrilling initiatives within the works from the Bruce Springsteen biopic Ship Me From Nowhere and the Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu, which is predicted to reach in 2026. With a filmography as numerous as this, it’s planted a seed of intrigue inside me and I can’t wait to see how White will method taking part in a personality from an Andre Aciman novel – significantly a queer one.
Can Jeremy Allen White rise to the problem?
There’s nothing I like to see greater than an actor taking up a job that sits on the alternative finish of the spectrum to those we closely affiliate with them taking part in. Take Daniel Craig, for instance. I had by no means actually paid quite a lot of consideration to the actor as a result of I had all the time related him with James Bond and the archetype of a ‘man’s man’. Nevertheless, when he starred because the camp detective Benoit Blanc in Knives Out (2019), I noticed a softer and far looser facet to Craig, which was a refreshing departure from his earlier roles as hyper-masculinised characters.
Weirdly, I really feel the identical with Jeremy Allen White. Due to his position as Carmy in The Bear, who’s virtually incapable of expressing any type of emotional output in addition to his position as burly wrestler Kerry Von Erich in The Iron Claw (2023), I’ve solely seen White solely as an actor of some of these roles. Subsequently it was shocking to listen to him tackle the position of a queer character from an Aciman novel.
However don’t confuse this with disappointment, as a result of it’s removed from that. As a substitute, Netflix’s alternative of casting has raised my expectations of White as an actor and I’m excited to see how he chooses to imagine the character of Paul, and which route he decides to take him over the course of the restricted sequence.
