Luca Guadagnino Says ‘After the Hunt’ Won’t Tackle ‘Sexuality or Love’ as His Other Films Have

From “I Am Love” to “Queer,” romance and desire have always been fundamental to Luca Guadagnino‘s storytelling. Even in more mainstream fare like “Call Me by Your Name” and “Challengers,” Guadagnino has found ways to incorporate intimacy as a way of exploring humanity, but the Italian filmmaker recently shared that his latest film, “After the Hunt,” will diverge from these subjects.

“It’s not a movie about sexuality or love. It’s one of my very rare movies where I didn’t tackle that,” Guadagnino said in a recent interview on “WTF with Marc Maron.” In describing what the film would cover, he added, “It’s a very timely movie for where we are now. In terms of the society and the division in society and the extreme positions that we can have vis-a-vis an opinion in a way.”

Guadagnino described the project, which is currently in post-production, as “a very surprising movie,” but didn’t want to give too much away.

“It’s about what happens in the milieu of academia between younger and older people and the idea of consent,” said Guadagnino, adding later, “I can tell you that it’s very loaded. I can tell you that the movie is very provocative, but not in a stupid way, but I would say in a very articulate way. It’s a great script from this first time writer, Nora Garrett.”

In addition to the script grabbing his attention, Guadagnino was also excited by the prospect of working with Roberts. He shared with Maron that he views her as a unique talent and found her work in “After the Hunt” to be the pinnacle of her career.

“I’ve been a fan of Julia forever. I’m a big fan and that’s another incredible movie star, that she has something that not everybody has,” Guadagnino said to Maron. “Working with Julia was a joy of life and you’ll see. Her performance is, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I feel it’s her best performance.”

No release date has been set for “After the Hunt,” but the film will be distributed by Amazon MGM and reunites Guadgnino with his “Challengers” and “Queer” score composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. The film is produced by Brian Grazer and Allan Mandlebaum through Imagine Entertainment.