Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is having quite the year. His tennis comedy/love triangle film “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, has already grossed $68 million worldwide—not bad for a drama without a major I.P.
29.04.2024 - 14:41 / nypost.com
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.
“You would cast anyone but me.” Zendaya not only co-starred in but produced the film, and she handpicked O’Connor for the role after a discussion with director Luca Guadagnino.“Literally, that was the first person I thought of,” the “Euphoria” star told the outlet of O’Connor. She explained she liked the actor’s intensity in “The Crown,” and remembered thinking, “After meeting him, I was like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re nothing like this person.’”O’Connor admitted when it comes to his casting, “I still think it’s a reach.” Filming the steamy scenes raised its own set of challenges, including Zendaya’s family viewing the finished product.“It was hilarious,” she told Entertainment Tonight recently, noting her family was aware of the film’s scandalous content.
Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is having quite the year. His tennis comedy/love triangle film “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, has already grossed $68 million worldwide—not bad for a drama without a major I.P.
Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield are teaming up for an exciting project!
EXCLUSIVE: Andrew Garfield is in negotiations to star alongside Julia Roberts in Amazon MGM Studios’ upcoming feature After the Hunt, which will be released in theaters next year. Luca Guadagnino is directing the film from a script penned by Nora Garrett. Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer and Allan Mandelbaum are producing alongside Guadagnino via his Frenesy banner. Imagine Entertainment’s Karen Lunder will executive produce alongside Nora Garrett. The film is targeting a summer start-of-production.
Loewe creative director Jonathan Anderson was an honorary co-chair at the 2024 Met Gala and he kept the party going at one of the most star-studded after parties of the night!
Tom Holland was unfortunately not in attendance at the 2024 Met Gala, though many were hoping he was going to be there!
The guys of Challengers have arrived at the 2024 Met Gala!
Luca Guadagnino believes filmgoers will endorse his Zendaya movie Challengers because it delivers “a canon of Hollywood golden age comedy – seductive fun with queerness.” The movie’s “big sell” is a shot of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor kissing one another in various configurations.
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.
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details about Challengers.
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.
Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor In order to deliver authenticity to every ace, volley, serve and rally, the stars of Luca Guadagnino‘s tennis drama “Challengers” each trained for up to six hours a day for three months on the court. In the film, two former friends and double partners Patrick Zweig (Josh O’Connor) and Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) face off in a challengers match years after falling out over their pursuit of Tashi Duncan (Zendaya). Brad Gilbert, tennis coach to Andy Murray and Coco Gauff, worked extensively with the actors to make sure they could convincingly become sports stars.
Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Challengers,” Luca Guadagnino’s enthralling sports opera about three great-looking tennis stars who trade partners, is the latest movie to feature that time-honored configuration, the love triangle. And make no mistake: This one is complicated. It’s no mere either/or thing.
Zendaya wonders why her kissing scenes get a lot of attention when she’s just doing her job.
Zendaya is a woman on-the-go these days and she admits that no city currently feels like her true home.
Naman Ramachandran Studiocanal’s Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” stayed atop the U.K. and Ireland box office for the second consecutive weekend with £1.8 million ($2.3 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The film now has a running total of £6.3 million.
Zendaya is promoting her new movie Challengers in the Big Apple!
Challengers, or rather director Luca Guadagnino's Challengers, which stars Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O'Connor and . I've seen it, as well as several colleagues, and while everyone agrees that they were very much looking forward to Zendaya's “tennis love triangle movie,” half of those I polled hated it while others loved it.