What to Watch the Week of April 21: Zendaya's Challengers Will Make You Take Sides

standout soundtrack, Challengers is one of the best films of 2024.Directed by Luca Guadagnino, the spicy sports drama follows professional tennis champion Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) who is plotting a career comeback with the help of his wife Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), a former tennis rising star who was forced to retire due to an injury.At a tournament, however, Art is matched against Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor), who is his former best friend and his wife’s ex lover.Along with starring in the film, Zendaya also serves as a producer alongside Guadagnino, Rachel O’Connor and Amy Pascal.The entirety of Challengers is told in a nonlinear fashion, as the love triangle between Art Donaldson, Tashi Duncan and Patrick Zweig is unraveled through flashbacks in the build-up to the climactic tennis match in the present.A day prior to the match between Art and Patrick, Tashi tells her husband Art that if he loses the match, she will leave him – in what’s pitched as a motivator to spur him to win in order to get his tennis career back on track. Later on, Tashi meets with Patrick to ask him to throw the match in Art’s favour, and while he hesitantly agrees, the pair end up briefly rekindling their past romance and have sex in the back of a car.At the match in the present, just as Patrick looks to throw the match by losing points with foul serves, he communicates to Art that he had sex with his wife the night prior by placing his tennis ball against the centre of his racket before his serve – something he did years prior when he first started dating Tashi.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SPOILER ALERT: This article contains plot details for “Challengers,” now playing in theaters. All Tashi Duncan wanted was great tennis. At the end of Luca Guadagnino’s buzzy tennis drama “Challengers,” the camera freezes on Tashi (Zendaya) as she screams “come on!” following a match point volley for the ages between competitors Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist). The volley got so intense that it ends with Art leaping over the net and falling into Patrick’s arms.

Challengers, it's clear she's in complete control. From the strong whip of her braid and sexy moonlit skin as a young rising tennis star, to her sharp honey blonde bob and perfect nude manicure as a mother and mogul, Tashi's look is punctuated by power.Of course, her commanding presence on screen is a testament to Zendaya, who plays the tennis champ-turned coach in Luca Guadagnino's new romance drama.

his new film, “Challengers,” co-starring Zendaya and “West Side Story” star Mike Faist, he’s showing a whole new side of himself.O’Connor plays tennis pro Patrick, one-third of a love triangle with Tashi (Zendaya), a tennis pro poised for greatness before an injury relegates her to coaching, and Art (Faist), another well-to-do tennis pro. Tashi eventually marries Art, and Patrick comes back into their lives years later, kicking off tensions and connections, including a racy threesome.Reviews have described “Challengers” as sexy and steamy, something O’Connor is still surprised he was chosen for.“If you were making the movie, you wouldn’t cast me,” O’Connor recalled telling screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes in an interview for The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal, O’Connor – who stars in Challengers alongside Zendaya and Mike Faist – revealed that the one character he would like to play given the chance is a “darker version” of Willy Wonka.However, O’Connor was quick to note that Timothée Chalamet most recently had a turn as the iconic character: “I think probably, I’d love to play Willy Wonka, but like a dark Willy Wonka. I know they just made a Wonka film with Timothée Chalamet, but I would really like to play a sort of darker version of him.”Chalamet isn’t the only actor O’Connor noted to take on the mantle of Wonka.

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Challengers.

Josh O’Connor is currently starring in Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers and recently revealed what character he would love to play in the future.

have been on a globetrotting press tour to get the word out about Italian director Luca Guadagnino’s original film, which opened in 3,477 locations in the US and Canada.“We’re obviously very, very happy with the number,” said Kevin Wilson, who heads theatrical distribution for Amazon Studios and MGM. “Looking at the audience who showed up, it’s really encouraging.

Challengers is No. 1!

according to IMDB’s Box Office Mojo.The Post called the romantic sports drama starring Zendaya and Mike Faist, “artful, addictive and deceptive.”The flick, which centers around a tennis champion who stages a comeback with the help of his former tennis prodigy wife, could enjoy a $15 million opening weekend, according to the Hollywood Reporter.The Christian drama “Unsung Hero” was in second place, taking home $3.65 million.The movie, which was also released on Friday, is based on the true story of the Smallbone familyof Grammy-winning musicians and details the hardships they endured emigrating from Australia to the United States in the 1990s.“Civil War,” which The Post bashed as “a torturous, overrated movie without a point,” landed in third, with an over $1.9 million take.In just over two weeks after its premiere, it became the independent production company A24’s second-highest-grossing film, beating out its other high earners such as “Lady Bird” and “Hereditary.”“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which was released on March 29, was in fourth place, with sales of $1.76 million.The horror film “Abigail” took fifth, with $1.49 million in earnings.

Selome Hailu When Justin Kuritzkes began writing what later became the hottest love triangle of the year, there was no star power involved. Though he was already an accomplished playwright and novelist (and the husband of Celine Song, the writer-director who provided last year’s buzziest love triangle with “Past Lives”), “Challengers” was Kuritzkes’ first screenplay and began as a document on his computer that no one was paying him to finish. But in 2021, “Challengers” appeared on the Black List, an annual roundup of the most popular unproduced scripts in Hollywood, which helped him sell it to producers Amy Pascal and Rachel O’Connor.

J. Kim Murphy “Challengers” netted a $6.2 million opening day from 3,477 North American theaters, a figure that includes $1.9 million from preview screenings. Amazon MGM Studios‘ love-triangle drama is set to match industry projections for a $15 million debut.

Selome Hailu “I’m watching tennis as we speak — Djokovic,” Zendaya tells me during one of her first interviews about “Challengers.” It’s July 11, 2023. The 27-year-old actor is watching Wimbledon on TV while preparing for SAG-AFTRA to go on strike, which would leave her unable to attend her film’s Aug. 30 world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Amazon MGM Studios’ Challengers, starring Zendaya and directed by Luca Guadagnino, made $1.9M in previews, a figure $100K shy of what Universal’s Cocaine Bear did. The tennis sexy romcom is hoping to open to $15M for the weekend.

Saltburn.”Like Emerald Fennell’s shapeshifting mystery, “Challengers” is, at once, artful, addictive and deceptive. The salivating viewer believes it’s one thing, becomes sure it’s another and then leaves with a different theory altogether.There are more similarities.

Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist are talking Challengers.

Rebecca Rubin Senior Film and Media Reporter Game, set… but there’s not much of a match. “Challengers,” a steamy tennis drama starring Zendaya and directed by Luca Guadagnino, is poised to lead the domestic box office without much in the way of competition. The film, from Amazon MGM, is projected to collect $12 million to $15 million from 3,400 North American theaters in its opening weekend.

Zendaya wonders why her kissing scenes get a lot of attention when she’s just doing her job.

From almost all accounts, it seems like Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino has another hit on his hands with “Challengers,” a new tennis drama from MGM Studios that’s actually more of a love-triangle romance bundled into the sports genre. Starring Zendaya (Marvel’s “Spider-Man” franchise and the “Dune” series), Josh O’Connor (“Dr.